Mirage
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: Geordi LaForge and Dr. Crusher survive a shuttle stranding on a winter world. Along the way, they meet a unicorn child and the lost captain of the famed USS. Voyager.


Title: Mirage

Author: Anotherjaneway

Series: X STV/STTNG

Part: Complete episode.

Rating: [G]

Code: X Geordi&Crusher STTNG meets Janeway&EMH STV

Summary: Geordi LaForge and Dr. Crusher survive a shuttle stranding on a winter world. Along the way, they meet a unicorn child and the lost captain of the famed USS. Voyager.

Disclaimer: Gee. All people here are theirs. Paramount is the God of Star Trek. They just let me play in their backyard.

Oh yes, one more thing. The use of the number 47 in this story was very intentional.. ;)

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Mirage

The stars shone in the inky black night, their scant light shining everywhere except in the space where a small shuttle cruised en route.  
The stark beauty surrounding the little ship didn't go unnoticed by the Starfleet commander at the helm. She smiled,

"Beverly Crusher, shuttle's personal log : Stardate 240918.7.  
I've finally managed to pry Geordi LaForge away from his beloved warp conduit relays long enough for him to get in some much needed R&R."

The doctor shot a meaningful look at the the youthful engineer seated to her left. He was slumped in the nav chair with the weight of the world square on his yellow and black uniformed shoulders. He absently hit computer buttons, mumbling mostly to himself,  
"I'm rested. *Beep* I'm fit. *Beep* Commander Riker is the tired one. Why didn't you bring him along?"

Beverly straightened her blue lab coat absently over her lap. It never ceased to amaze her how many of the Enterprise crew were workaholics and didn't even realize it. Why even Chief O'Brien managed to work three consecutive shifts straight without batting an eye. He was only aware that he had a problem when he mistook a canister of lubricant for a mug of coffee. Dr Crusher chuckled, amused,  
"We are running incommunicado while we skirt an area near the Cardassian border and will remain so until we rendevous with the U.S.S. Kilamanjaro for Geordi's transfer on board. His destination? Talyas moon. Wil Riker's idea of paradise..."

Geordi LaForge brightened. He polished the edge of his visor with a sleeve, "Yep. It sure is. Mine, too."

Dr. Crusher paused, angling her jaw, "Computer, Hold recording." She fixed Geordi with a curious stare. "I know this is none of my business WHERE you go on leave, even as ship's physician and all, but...what really goes on over there? I mean, even Deanna can't get a good fix on Wil for days.  
after he goes to this moon.."

Geordi just stared vaguely ahead lost in a remembered haze. He purred a long, pleasured sigh as he clicked his visor back into place. His face afforded her a meaningful look full of innuendo.

The doctor abruptly closed her mouth. She retraced steps rapidly, "Never mind. It's a guy thing...Annnd, I really think I don't want to know.  
Resume log.." She hid behind a datapadd.

Geordi snapped out of his reverie at her discomforture, "Aw, no. It's not like THAT at all.. You gotta go, Beverly. The people there are so--"

Dr. Crusher cleared her throat, interrupting him, "Until I rendevous back with the Enterprise a week from now, I plan to indulge myself in some heavy duty playwrighting. That is.." She put a hint of tension in her voice, "...after I pass all of my tests. End log."

Her ploy worked. Geordi was effectively distracted.  
"Test nerves? You? Spoken like a true novice.." he chided.

Dr. Crusher tossed the padd onto her console, "O.k., I'm finished.  
Now what? I've faced failed stabilizers, a wormhole, and hostile radiation exposure." She reset her coordinates with a fancy flourish of button beeps, "This stuff isn't so bad.."

Geordi chuckled with ominous amusement, "Heh. Those scenarios are for junior grade shuttle pilots." He cracked his knuckles, "I'm just getting started.."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cold was piercing. Footprints tracked in the snow. Their line was uneven and marred with the craters of frequent falls. A slightly dressed man in ragged sky blue clothes shifted his burden carefully as he leaned against a twisted tree, "Soon, my Ariel. We won't be found here."  
::The powerful ones with the name of a single letter are short sighted and luckily, very reluctant to search about artic wastelands like this poor world. They will never have Ariel as a plaything. Not as long as I am still alive.::

He stroked the cheek of the delicate child nestled in his arms. Snowy white tresses wafted away from Ariel's milky face and revealed large,  
lavender eyes which regarded his own amber ones with a deepening trust,  
"Guardian, it's happening again.." she murmured sleepily.

The old alien looked up in alarm at the surrounding woods. But there was only silence in the chill. For several, tense seconds, his exhausted gasps punctuated the quiet as he convinced himself that their pursuers were no where near. Slowly, the blue sun star's feeble light and the light crystalline song of the daylight wind through the iced, bare trees ended his fright. "I hear nothing child. We are alone."  
"Not THEM..... "Look" here..." she said vaguely.

He focused differently. Impossibly, the sound of dripping water grew in the distance. A torrid promise of a place that was cruelly denied him by the weakness in his body.  
"Paradise is coming?..." he asked, "In this rising wet?" Tears filled his amber eyes and froze on his saffron skin as the familiar liquid chorus brought him memories of his home fold, tucked away, just out of his reach, by the judgement of his own race and others. "But this world has been frozen for millenia. There is no gate to my Home here."

The sound reminded him painfully of what he longed for truly. The Guardian's face broke into a desperately sad smile and he sighed a long trailing sob, no longer willing to handle any reminders of his past. But then, with the melting, came a new sensation, a spicy scent that bit down hard and greatly shortened his breath.

Sudden confusion twisted his features and he swayed in the deep snow. He grew dizzy, nearly dropping Ariel as an unexpected swirl of warmth surrounded them. It triggered a Change spasm inside the Guardian...and he fell to his knees.

At the rude jarring of his stumble, the albino child made a soft sound that sliced through his heart. "..Ahh.." she sighed, almost musically.

Its effect on him offset the pulling burn of the strange climate oddity he thought he saw coming into being around him. He pulled his thoughts back together once more as he coaxed the child to let the chill return as it should to their surroundings.

-----

Ariel was the last of her race, one that had no name. It was a cruelly tragic outcome, one that the Guardian felt he was responsible for regardless of how things went on their own. It had torn at him when he found later that she was all alone after his pursuers "unmade" her people purely for hatred's sake.

He had witnessed the death of Ariel's mother, left alive until the last, at her birthing in his tormentor's idea of a joke. He had been enraged when the Ones from the Continuum ruled the newborn a threat to their realm as they had accused the Guardian, simply because both were....."evolving beyond Galactic norms".

By some miracle, The Guardian had snatched the innocent child away with him, making the Continuum think she too expired under their thought energy, and so their long evading escape attempt began.

His discovery of concealment on winter worlds gave him hope, but deep down, the Guardian knew that the tiny foaling girl in his arms would most likely be doomed to the same loneliness and death through their self righteous pursuers, should she ever be discovered to still exist, as he was destined to suffer.

::But she is from the model people, originators of the unicorn. It is unfair that she, too, is marked to be extinct, like that noble creature.:: That inevitability for her saddened the Guardian more than it did for any animal form he had ever seen die out forever in the length of his entire memory.  
He did not care that he himself had been tagged for culling. His people were told they could continue, so long as the Change never happened in their children's genes on a regular basis. No doubt he would be killed, earlier than was slated, for saving her.

The Q's decision about Ariel's people's fate aside, the Guardian's misery was indelibly enforced on a second front as well. His own people's encouraged biase toward anyone undergoing the Change. That ugly prejudice had only sharpened once the Q had laid down the law.

He had been banished off planet for the sudden altering which manifested in his genome during his teen years and now, in his old age, his Change frequency rate alerted the Q to attend to him in the final chase, until he "ceased to exist". ::There is a chance for me. If my Change completes first. Then, I will be beyond their reach. Only then, can I return Home. But no one in the history of my race has ever made it that far. The Q are too strong.::

They were almost upon him in one system, and he poised to give up, when had found Ariel and her plight.  
The old pariah decided to devote what was left of his life to her for as long as he could for her presence offered him true comfort and surrease from his troubles.  
:: My fate may be exiled execution because I am elevating physically beyond my own kind, but now I find that hers will be a far worse one if she remains visible to the rest of the galaxy even if we should successfully elude the Q. For in her eyes, I've found a fatal flaw.::

He thought further about the curious effect the tiny child had on others and himself once she had started talking.  
::Anyone who looks into those eyes of hers is instantly caught with a false, unstoppable realization that anything or any desire can be obtainable through her in an instant. :: The hunched over saffron alien smiled at Ariel, shielding his musings from her probing mind with a gentle wash of bonding. ::She will become a tool if she should ever leave my care.:: the Guardian hypothesized. ::No doubt, Ariel will be revered as a god or condemned as a curse, if rediscovered,  
to serve or die for whomever won the war over her.::

The Guardian swore to create a third option for this final rare child. He would spare her from that horrid existence of fear or servitude. She would know a normal life. Even at the early cost of his own. For now, being together, they were whole.

Then one day, the Guardian felt something go wrong with his Changes. Pain became his constant companion. And he grew afraid that even his tiny dream of true escape would be smothered before it had even begun to burn.

He kept it from Ariel's detection, but her evolving abilities made each day doing so more and more difficult.

The Guardian only hoped he could continue long enough to save them both from oblivion.

-----------

It was high sun and the bright sunlit blue glow surrounding them in the snowy valley made his eyes tingle with color shock. The Guardian tucked his rusty mane under his sky hood and looked out over the azure snowscape for their next level course into deeper cover. Wine colored trees crackled in the bitter cold. He didn't even feel his own bodily faults left over from the Change surges for the day. And he smiled at that small mercy. ::Ahh, such sweet ice.  
It is a balm blanketing me. :: He had chosen well to hide Ariel here.:: THEY never bother this world, for nothing changes here at all. Even the forest. It's in natural glacial stasis.::

For a time, he rested in the snow, imagining the blue sun warming his soul.

"So cold." the child wondered, innocently watching her breath curl in the bright sunlit air from her place nestled in his arms. "No more.." she whispered. Her forehead furrowed in concentration.

Her Guardian touched the button of glowing horn there. "Don't."  
he soothed as he imagined her dead father might have once.  
"You don't know what you are doing, child. Bring no moving water and no warmth out. It hurts me."

A cramp from carrying his precious burden so long wracked his altered left arm and that hand fell away onto an ice covered plant near where he was kneeling. It was curiously still green under its shell of ice. ::What's this?::

Others nearby began to steam and drip with boiling hisses..

With a growing look of horror, the alien man struggled to his feet with Ariel. He realized that she was trying to reach his Home fold from another angle. "No! Don't bring that place yet.  
Not now.. I...need to balance myself." Pain stabbed deep in his head as he sought control of yet another Change ebbing inside of him. "Ahh!! Stop this Ariel!! It's too soon..."

"Summer... Peace... This is what you want.. You...need-" she puzzled, not understanding. Her angelically pure face glowed around the tiny lilac button of horn on her forehead.

From the plant, the shell of ice fell completely away. Rainbow mist began to rise from its leaves in iridescent fire and the air surrounding them grew spicy.

A new wave of weakness staggered the Guardian and he gasped, his mind going numb. He cradled the tiny child, tightly gripping her palm, "Ariel.. I'm...not prepared... Let...let it go. I'm here on this world, keeping you from them, trying to protect you. I don't deserve to leave...not yet.. I won't leave you behind!"

But she had closed her eyes against him in thrall.

The power grew. Whirling, the Guardian tried to search for healthy frost, an escape route away from the area metamorphosing around them.

He covered her head. An intricate transparent timebomb appeared in the snow already locked into a countdown in Iconian numbering at his feet.

Ariel smiled, "There will be "light". Like the blue sun above.." she promised him.

He put a trembling hand to her lips, "You don't understand. There's danger to me if you do this.." The Guardian ran as fast as he could with her into the trees where the ice was still silent. "I must not go now.. Resist it, Ariel. Fight!"

Something of his wish communicated itself to her on a deep level because soon, unseen by the fleeing pair, the thawing place where they had rested ...paused.

The created bomb faded away into nothingness and the plants in the snow froze one by one, their permanent winter ice sealing over them once more. The eternal silence of the forest returned.

---------

A half an hour later, the pain in the Guardian's head had gone.  
And his tie with Ariel resumed.

She awoke. Ariel had no recollection of how they arrived to where she now found herself. Memory was a morass. ::What did I do:  
she wondered with dread, ::I wanted to help him and yet--::

She startled in her nesting blanket, then relaxed when she found he was next to her, sharing his insulating cape.

He lay stretched in a sleep of the dead around the campfire he had started which did not burn any matter. That simple Iconian miracle never ceased to amaze her and she laughed and the icicles around her answered back when she made the blue flames grow higher.

Then an odd tendril of "knowing" came from her companion even through his sleep. Ariel's eyes shut.  
::The Guardian knows something I don't.:: she thought. ::What is it?:: His hand on her shoulder, placed to keep her warm was cool and motionless. That alarmed the unicorn girl.  
Ariel "touched" his awareness and soul with hers.

His thoughts were mired in a murky glue that hadn't been there before. "You are hurting." she said aloud, "Why?" Still, he slept not even awakening to her compelling lilac gaze.

Then, Ariel knew.

That which was meant to happen to him; the Change, wouldn't occur somehow. ::Growth is natural.:: she reasoned to herself,  
::For him, most of all.:: "He is being held back and I do not know why.. I want to help him. I-"

She saw the instinct in his mind calling out softly, growing louder, not even recognized yet by his own body as a critical need.

Ariel frowned, thinking about the impression she had gleaned from his cells, "This isn't food." Ariel said in frustration,  
"I..I.. I- don't know where to find this." She shook him,  
"Guardian, answer me.." Her fright carred her eyes to the unnatural fire and into its blue flames. "What is this you require?" she whispered, growing younger in her uncertainty.

Her horn button dimmed to darkness when he did not reply.

For the first time in her young life, Ariel was afraid. And that fear made her make the first independent decision she had ever made, without her beloved Guardian to guide her.  
::As long as he lives, so shall I do, for him and him alone.::

-------------------------------------------------------------

The shuttlecraft Batai felt poised on a brink and so did its two passengers. Geordi raised his eyebrows in challenge.  
"Ready?"

Dr. Crusher licked dry lips, "For anything."

Geordi moved slowly over his nav board carefully choosing his next configuration with all the skill of a master.  
Then his hand shook. He swayed, dizzily, "Ughhh.." His back stiffened and he went limp, slumped over the console.

"Incapacitated pilot scenario? Easy one! Not very original Geordi. Automatic pilot engaged. Long range sensors enabled.  
Shields up...Done." She turned to him, "O.k., what's next?"

Geordi LaForge didn't move or answer back.

"Geordi? Say something to me.." Alarmed, Dr. Crusher rose from her chair and went to his side.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The snow had ended for the night. The Guardian awoke, and he automatically searched for Ariel with eyes and mind. He spotted her silhouette through a blur of vision that did not resolve itself no matter how many times he blinked.

She spoke without preamble, "Guardian, how are you?"

He lied, "I am better, my child." He brushed away curly hair from his face that was damp with sweat in spite of the cold.

Deep inside, he felt himself slipping into a maelstrom caused by his inadvertant taste of his future home. ::Paradise:  
He fought the sensation down and changed the subject.  
"Have you--"

"Eaten yet? Yes. As you should eat.." she finished for him.  
She handed him a portion of gray meat.

"I will." The Guardian noticed that his charge was doing something unusual for her temperment. She was tapping a stone against the bedrock beneath them absently, almost without thought. ::That is strange..:: Ariel never played games or even attempted to form music for that matter. He had a frightening thought at her odd behavior.  
"Are THEY near?"

"No, they're still...in their continuum.." she replied.  
Tears were in her voice for the first time and the child did not look at his eyes.

"What's the matter, Ariel? You are truly frightened.. Don't be. We are safe here. I can exist for some time in "Winter"."  
The Guardian sat down next to her but the snowy child just studied the results of her efforts as the rocky sounds she created echoed all around them. He tipped her chin up to his and was startled to find her face awash with silver tears.  
"It's my fault.. I..I don't mean to.." she sobbed.

The Guardian looked at her gently, "You don't mean to what, child?" he asked.

Ariel's pure features split into a cry of anguish.

The permafrost under them exploded. Steamy gouts snuffed out the blue campfire and filled the air with water. The ground instantly softened. The roar of release lasted for only a minute, but when everything had cleared, the Guardian lay insensate on wet, vegetated earth.

A cut oozed on his arm and he was sodden with liquid and blood trickled onto the stone beneath him.

Ariel was bone dry, her stone beating into mossy rock, "I can't keep your Paradise away!! I can't..I I can't do it.  
Forgive me...forgive."

The Change fault exacerbated, rising in the Guardian and surged to the foreground. It swept him away in a tide of agony and despair.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Geordi's first thought was that the shuttle's floor wasn't made for comfort's sake. He groaned, "Oh.."

"Easy, Geordi. Take it slow. I haven't found what's wrong yet."

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Geordi opened his eyes. He saw the doctor through his visor's familiar rainbow hues. But another effect was shorting out his vision in regular pulses, "Whoa.  
That's not right."

Dr. Crusher was scanning him with a medical tricorder, "What isn't?  
Your head? Stay flat." she ordered. His readings were baffling. None of the usual earmarks of syncope manifested.

"Not exactly my head.." Geordi squinted against the bright flares in defense, "I-It...I'm seeing some odd imagery here like a sort of subspace leak or ...Ahhh!" He twisted in pain.

"Easy." she said holding him still. Her medical check completed and the tricorder bleeped. "All right. I'm getting no signs of head injury. Here's something for the pain." She eased medication into Geordi's bloodstream.

He relaxed as he felt the hypo hiss against his neck,.."Hmm, better."  
He took a deep breath, testing himself, "How...how long was I out?"  
He tried to focus through the interference. It got easier with the forced absence from his headache.

Dr. Crusher helped him to sit. "Only a minute or so. Are you still seeing that visual distortion?"

Geordi looked at his hands which keep blinking in and out of true focus settings in the visor's sight, "Yeah, it's still there. But it's not so overpowering anymore."

Dr. Crusher barely covered her growing frustration, "Your vital signs are normal. There's no elevated CPK levels, no cellular disruption,  
there's not so much as a bruise on you. According to this," she snapped her tricorder shut, "You're fine. It's safe for you to get up now."

They both slowly return to nav and helm seats with the doctor continuing to watch him closely. Geordi began to feel uncomfortable under her close scrutiny, "Look.." he said a bit forcefully, "Maybe we're looking in the wrong place for my problem. Computer, ship's status.." he commanded.

It's familiar warble sounded, #On course bearing zero two seven mark five. Full shields and auto pilot engaged. All systems nominal.#

"Everything is "fine" there, too." she said dryly. "Just the same.  
I'd like you to take off your visor until we can get the lab techs on board the Kilamanjaro to run a diagnostic on it." she shrugged apologetically. She reached for the release servos on either side of Geordi's headband.

He stopped her, "Wait a minute! I recognize this....pattern I'm seeing.. It's like an early Code One Alpha Zero from about thirty years ago.."

"A distress call?" Beverly asked. She reconsidered their situation.  
"Computer, are there any abnormal indications in either subspace or transwarp communication bands?"

The response was quick, #None currently registering.#

Dr. Crusher shrugged, throwing her hands up into the air.  
Geordi wasn't about to give up, "Huh, computer. Check the ship's logs back to the moment we left the Enterprise. Check for anything out of the ordinary."

#There is no record of anomolous activity in any communications frequency since shuttle departure at 2214 point--#

Geordi's fist pounded his console with a resounding thud, "Computer,  
OFF! This is impossible! I'm seeing an outside signal I tell you.."

Dr. Crusher leaned forward and a small smile crept into her face.  
She became confidentially soft voiced, "Perhaps your symptom is due to something other than what might be out "there"." she said,  
pointing to the twinkling stars around them in the viewing windows.

Geordi frowned and Beverly let him work out what she meant on his own, "Let me think." he said, "The signal's not registering on any system nor ever was according to the computer,.. so h-?? Oh,  
I figured it out.." Geordi blushed with realization, "So.. this is a headache, huh?" He folded his hands into his lap, rubbing his fingers self consciously.

Dr. Crusher nodded frankly, "You were about due for one. Though I'll admit. I've always wondered how you would manifest a headache once you finally contracted one."

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

"Your implant servos follow the pain receptors nature usually sets aside for head pain stimuli. You're incapable of getting a migraine the way I or someone else might experience one. So it comes as that visual effect and pains your eyeballs instead." She opened her own wide just to be funny.

Geordi chuckled at her candor and relaxed. He sighed, "Only until now,..hmm.." he grunted. "Not much of a physical advantage today having this thing on my face." he tapped his visor. "All right. Time to go listen to some Kling opera,....visorless.." he stood stretching.

"Get some sleep, too." she added. As he disappeared aft, a mischievious glint sparkled in her eye, "I could fix you a warm milk toddy.."

His back was to her, but that was no protection. He turned around.  
"Uh, no thanks, doc. I'll manage. Just.....try not to do any sublight corkscrews during the flight tests, huh? Klingon Opera alone is enough to make anyone sick to their stomach.."

Dr. Crusher looked up from the medkit she was putting away.  
"Then why listen to it?"

Geordi shrugged, leaning on the overhand bulkhead above his head,  
"My date on Talyas Moon will swear her undying devotion to anyone who can outsing her in high Klingonii." His cheshire's grin was the last thing she saw in the darkness of the shuttle's interior.

She laughed, "Oh...boy." she giggled, "Shoo.." she flitted at him with both hands.

------------------------------------------------------------------

By a frozen river, the Guardian stirred. Frost crackled on his clothes as he moved and he fought himself free of it and from the ground. He stood on shaky feet. For a few seconds, he struggled internally as well.  
Something integral to him had been lost. ::What?:: he thought dimly.

A movement from the snow drew his attention in the blue sunglow.  
It was a child. A thin one, a white skinned female dressed in rags.  
She reached for him.

He froze in place.

"Guardian? Help me.." she whimpered. "The things that I do frighten me."  
She clutched at him and his arms closed about her mechanically. "You said th- there was danger. That I couldn't bring you to the still point.  
Please... Tell me what to do.." she sobbed.

Slowly, an infantile blankness spread across his face.. What had been his steadfast personality, was gone. He drooled a little. One hand vaguely touched the girl's lips and he spoke to her in halting steps,  
"What...? Who.. am I. What...is this place? It's....so cold."

Ariel "reached" and couldn't feel the Guardian's mind at all. He was damaged.

She backed away in terror. "What have I done to you?" Guilt shot through her essence. And she felt a resurgence of altering power rushing to fill his instinctive need once again. The air warmed. A patch of snow at his feet vanished, revealing ancient green moss and alien flowers. "No," she whispered.  
"Not again... I will..NOT harm again!!" she fell and struggled off all fours in the slippery slush, "I'm.. I'm going.. to find what you need." She fled away from him taking the power with her like a heavy net around her soul.

The Guardian wasn't even aware she had gone. He looked down, seeing the tiny bit of summer on the ground, "Paradise is almost here....but.." He crouched down. A creature was there; so out of place in the surrounding ice that it appeared surreal. The iguana regarded the man with a baleful eye.  
"Yes..." the man sighed, "You are from there.. Show me the way?"

The Guardian tried to touch its mottled skin but it scrambled away, out of the circle of living greenery. It faded to nothingness.... "No..." he said.

The sound of flowing water increased. Ice dripped everywhere. To his right, a large ice floe in the river burst free in an explosion of shards, leaving a split exposed to the blue daylight. The dark tongue of water held him mesmerized in a sea of blue sun sparkles, "It is coming!!" The Guardian shouted triumphantly, crippled."See?"

The dazzle made him squint against it and his filming eyes watered.  
He closed them. When he had opened them again, one of the living plants had been freed from its icy tomb by the water's edge. It began to steam colors..

Pain lanced into his head and he laughed insanely weak, "You won't stop me!" he clutched his face, "I won't let you.." he sobbed, "Please...."  
The cut on his arm bled slowly.

The sound of melting ice lessened and died. The river was silenced abruptly.  
There was nothing of the bared ground to be seen. Only the snow where his boots had torn it. Sagging, the Guardian let exhaustion take its toll. "Don't leave me alone..." He didn't know why he was speaking of such a thing. He was an exile. A Changer. His fate was to stay ....alone.. But a partial name floated before his memory.."Ar--? Ari?" He felt sleep caress him, "I-I need to find.. to...find.." He folded hands under his cheek and the frost gripped him tightly to the ground, "Show me the way..." he sighed,  
"Show me Parad--" Then the glacial silence rippled with energy.

Several bombs appeared in the forest a short distance away from him.  
They counted down to zero and exploded. More of the strange misting plants were freed into the sunlight...

In his fitful doze, the old alien's body twisted in exquisite pain and he tried to cry out, but there was no sound at all.

Then the sound of rock hitting rock echoed faintly...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was almost an hour later. Dr. Crusher's yawn threatened to dislocate her jaw, "That's enough practicing for one-- Arhhh*yawn*.."

The computer burbled, #Repeat last command.#

"Stand by, computer." Those last maneuvers had been harrowing. How did one scrape off a quantuum string? It took all the creativeness she could muster to restore nacelle telemetry to its mate long enough to break free. In the process, only half the outer hull stayed behind.  
::Albeit in simulation.:: she chuckled. Beverly surmised that death by suffocation was preferable to being scattered across all moments in time forever screaming at the top of your lungs as you were being stretched that long. She hoped Geordi would approve of the option test answer she chose.

She turned to the sleeping lieutenant commander across the cabin from her seat and aimed a med tricorder in his direction. She noticed that he had heeded her advice.

The visor lay on the table by his head. He was comfortable.

Satisfied, Beverly set the tricorder on the console before her. "Computer.  
End all flight emergency simulations. Return flight control to the helm."

She watched all of the Batai's displays transpose to normal manual mode.  
She locked down the correct coordinates for their previous rendevous course as soon as her board committed. Suddenly, the Batai jilted slightly.  
The stars wavered on the viewscreen for just a moment, "What th-??"

A screen at the helm began flickering. Dr. Crusher moved her hands away from the controls, "Computer, did you do what I asked?"

#Helm is on manual.#

"Scan for any malfunction in the coordinate array panel in front of me. I am seeing a short or something there."

#There is no sign of system abnormality.# came its bland reply.

Dr. Crusher flew through a deeper diagnostic, confirming what she was getting with the computer once more, "Scan the rest of the shuttle's systems in the same manner." she ordered it.

#There are no indications of malfunction on board the Batai. All systems nominal.#

Beverly leaned in closer to the blinking screen, "This is weird."

"Hey!"

Dr. Crusher jumped in her seat.

"Oh, sorry, doc." Geordi was right there, both hands on the back of her chair, "That's what I am seeing in my visor!" he exclaimed, gripping his prosthetic tighter to his face.

Dr. Crusher allowed herself a recovery period. ::I must still be on edge from those flight tests. Man..:: Aloud, she asked, "D-Did I wake you?"

The engineer straightened up, frowning, "No.." he said as if he just learned that truth. "Something else did."

"What did?" Crusher asked. The scientist and physician in her seemed to know that that information was crucial to them. She studied him intently.

"It was...something simple....it was--" His eyes grew wide through the slits in the visor, "I- I can't seem to remember.." He sat down into the nav chair next to her.

"Mystery number three. First, there's the distortion that made you pass out in your visor. Then, it's this screen problem here that the computer can't identify.. and lastly..."

Geordi gripped the arms on his chair, "The sound I heard that woke me up!"

"Wait a minute.." Beverly gasped, "You REMEMBERED that."

"Yeah." Geordi was pleased. The memory was clearing.

"What was it?" She asked.

Geordi concentrated, "It's ...still going on. Tapping. In time with the pulses in my visor. Yeah.." he nodded, "They're synchronous now."

Dr. Crusher leaned back in triumph, "The question is, now what do we d--"

The computer interrupted, #Incoming transmission on subspace#  
Course static burst from the comm panel.

Geordi queried his board. "Someone is coming into range."

"The Kilamanjaro?" Crusher wondered.

"No, they're still two days out. And we are still in radio silence sectors.. Odd."

Dr. Crusher cleaned up the signal. The voice was in Federation Standard!! ~~..Can anyone hear me?..Warp breach is imminent.  
Life support is gone..~~

Geordi saw the ghost of a Federation signature on his sensors,  
"It's one of ours."

Dr. Crusher met Geordi's glance, "I'm breaking radio silence."  
She toggled a switch. "This is Commander Beverly Crusher of the Federation Shuttlecraft Batai We're zeroing in on your location. Please respond.."

There was no answer, Geordi shifted in his seat, "I still don't see anything.. Not even on--I'm getting something now." His findings were ominous, "One life sign. Human. And reaction traces of a warp core near critical. She's going to blow..!" he shouted.

There was no longer any time to reconsider options. Beverly made her decision, "Lock onto that lifesign. Prepare a broad spectrum beam." Dr. Crusher crossed her fingers together, mentally steeling herself. ::Here's hoping..:: She glanced ceilingward to the shuttle, ::Dammit, let us make a difference here.. Live up to your name.:: She patted a bulkhead.

"Having trouble getting a lock. There's an odd energy signature interfering with the targetting sensors." Geordi said.

"Compensate!" Beverly snapped, "Prepare to raise shields."

"Got em locked!" Geordi exclaimed.

"Energize!" the doctor shouted.

There was a bright flash out the window and the rising hum of the transporter strained. George and Beverly ducked in reflex at the flash, but then, it was over. Sparkles dotted a large region of carpeting behind them. Dr. Crusher heard the energy chorus begin to distort. "Boost the gain."

Geordi had an idea, "I'll try tying the pattern buffers to the impulse engine power relays. It might do the trick."

Suddenly, the shields snicked into place on their own and the two hunched down anticipating the full fury of a matter/antimatter explosion. No shock wave came. The sound of transporting had ended.

"What happened?" Geordi whispered. "The Federation signature is gone."

Dr. Crusher stood, snatching her tricorder open, "I don't know."  
It bleeped in her hand, "We've got someone all right. And she's alive.."

A woman lay sprawled among a tangle of debris and soot. Geordi and the doctor lifted a piece of charred bulkhead out of the way. They crouched down over her. The woman's face and hands were black with ash and she was deeply unconscious. She wore a uniform the opposite of bridge crew norms with hue displaying across the shoulders instead of in the midsection. A phaser and tricorder were arranged in typical away mission configuration on her belt.

"That's a strange getup. Think she's from one of the Deep Space stations?" Geordi remarked.

Dr. Crusher bent to check the quality of the woman's pulse. A detail the tricorder couldn't show her. Beverly brushed away hair from the survivor's neck. She was shocked to find rank of command grade on her collar. Four pips glinted in the light.

"Captain.." she said. "Can you hear me?" Their patient didn't move.

The pulse she found was rapid but adequate but recent exposure to smoke had flagged her vital signs. Her breathing was too shallow and irregular to do much good at all. Dr. Crusher bolstered the strange woman out of shock with a hypo, "She's going to be fine. That'll get her breathing normally again. There's no sign of fractures or serious injury. Help me move her to the bed."

Geordi did so. Beverly looked down at their mysterious captain's rank patient. "I don't know her. Do you?"

LaForge shook his head.

Beverly sighed. "There's nothing further I can do until she's conscious." she said covering her up with a thermal sheet. "Maybe then, we'll get some of our answers."

"Doc, I think I can do better than that right now."

Dr. Crusher looked up. Geordi was kneeling in the mess on the transporter pad. He held up a new model data padd, "Wow.. look at this baby. This is ..this is incredible.. Inside's a huge holoprogram with an autonomous emitter built right into it. Registry..N.C.C. 7465--Oops."

His grip had slipped and jostled a hidden commit button.

A mechanical buzz filled the air and a figure in black and blue materialized standing on top of the injured woman's bed. It glanced around for a moment, then stooped to retrieve something.

Dr. Crusher and Geordi suddenly found themselves staring down the business end of the woman's phaser.

The image before them spoke sharply, "All right. Just who the hell are you and what have you done to Captain Janeway?!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ariel was on a white plain. She was cupping something in her hands that glowed. "I found it!"

Her stones lay abandoned in the slush.

A golden pyramid was partially concealed in her balled palms. She put it into one woven pocket and smiled, "This is the thing the Guardian needs."  
She stood excitedly, looking around.

The tiny child started to head in one direction then stopped, "Where is he?  
..I- I don't feel him anymore..." She faced yet another way, thoroughly confused, "Guardian..!" In her fright, Ariel did not think. She could have retraced her own footsteps back the way she had come to find him.  
But her tender age betrayed her yet again.  
"I must find him... or...or he'll die.."

The surrounding terrain offered her no comfort.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Computer!!" LaForge shouted instantly, "Intruder alert!" he ducked down behind the shattered piece of bulkhead still on the floor. "Activate security field Gamma Two!"

A wall of yellow shimmered into being, separating front and back halves of the shuttle's cabin. The holofigure fired over their heads.  
Naturally, it bounced off the field and back at him. He just fizzled and glanced down at his own impacted stomach in surprise.

Geordi fumbled with the augmented data padd in his hands, "Come on! Come on!!" he grumbled. Dr. Crusher inched her way over to him using every available cover to help him out.

The hologram saw what they were trying to do and raised a hand, "Wait a minute! You can't just---" He disappeared. The phaser fell from mid air, bounced once off the bed and onto the carpeting.

The computer bleeped, #Detecting no further threat. Standing down from intruder alert.# The containment field winked out.

Geordi and the doctor caught their breaths, both gripping the strange data padd between them as if it could bite, still hunched behind the debris. "What the hell was that?" the engineer gasped.

Dr. Crusher had no easy answer. She groaned and crawled to the bed,  
checking on the captain's status. "He didn't harm her. Do you think that hologram was a sentry? Pretty creative thinking on her part if she used him as one all the while trying to save her own skin from a warp core overload. She could have juryrigged that program before we beamed her aboard as insurance against us. At the time, we were calculated unknowns."

Dr. Crusher caught her breath, "Why though? If we could see their ident transponder, wouldn't it make sense that they could see ours?"

Geordi pulled himself to his feet, "Your guess is as good as mine. But let me tell you one thing." He hooked a thumb over toward the bed.  
"I wouldn't want to find myself on this Janeway's bad side for the life of me..."

At that moment, Captain Janeway coughed. She stirred and began to awaken.

Dr. Crusher spoke up, "Speak of the devil..."  
Geordi hid the phaser.

Beverly put on her most diplomatic smile, and smacked Geordi to do the same, "Easy,captain. You're safe."

It took a few moments for the woman to focus. Her eyes took in their uniforms, "Federation? That's not possible." Her hand migrated toward her empty phaser clip.. A second later, to her combadge on her shoulder,  
"Janeway to Voyager.. Respond.." That last effort made her wince.

Geordi spread his hands wide, "I'm sorry. But I'm afraid that won't work."

Captain Janeway froze as she took in his visor. She turned her head checking him over as if to look for other implants he might have had. ::Not half Borg:: she decided. She didn't disguise the anger in her voice, "What have you done to my ship..?" It was not a question.

Geordi immediately felt inches high, "Nothing, captain,..I..Uh.  
We're kind of hoping you could tell us..." he admitted honestly.

She studied him and Dr. Crusher for a long moment. Then her eyes flickered to the starry windows. Familiar ones.  
Her eyebrow ...rose. Her mouth set in a firm line, "From the look of things, I'd say I got home.." she said simply.

Beverly was frank, "I'm afraid I don't follow you.." She was worried.  
::Did I miss something in my original examination?::

Janeway read between the lines behind Crusher's loaded question.  
"No, I did not hit my head." she winced again,  
rubbing a sore spot on her arm. Beverly scanned the spot.  
The captain asked, "You're a physician?" Dr. Crusher nodded. Janeway relaxed a tiny bit. Then she started speaking, "I could be dreaming this, but somehow, I don't think so."  
She began coughing, and allowed Beverly to sit her up against a wall to ease it. "oh.. I hate fires.."

Geordi looked away and refused to meet the captain's eyes.

His reaction was not lost on their visitor and all emotion drained from her face, "I'm Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. If you check your records, you'll find we were lost some time ago in the Badlands while following a Maquis raider. An energy wave created by a being called the Caretaker carried us over seventy thousand light years from Federation territory. To the Delta Quadrant. My crew and I have been trying to get back ever since." Her words tightened with stress and she stabbed Geordi with a penetrating stare,  
"I say again, what happened to my ship and crew.."

Dr. Crusher understood right away. She knew the devastating consequences of separation that starship captains endured especially, in the face of the unknown, apart from their vessels.  
"Geordi, we're going about this all wrong. Captain Janeway,  
I'm Beverly Crusher, chief medical officer of the Starship Enterprise and this is Geordi LaForge, ship's chief engineer.  
We were on leave to Talyas Moon when we heard a distress call from your ship over the comm line. We went to investigate.  
...There was what appeared to be a warp core failure in progress.."

Memory hit Captain Janeway like a blow, "I was alone on the holodeck. B'Elanna had just calibrated its program emitters to accept a new energy source that potentially would have lowered suspectability of holoimages to concentrated light beams. I commandeered a phaser and was testing intensity out on the doctor.."

"On your doctor?" Dr. Crusher asked.

Kathryn smiled, and held up a hand, "Our EMH program. Our regular physician was killed during our transference to the Delta Quadrant. His program has useful diagnostic functions if you know how to use them."

Beverly and Geordi stifled their reactions into trying to keep staight faces.

"What's so funny?" Kathryn asked.

"I believe we've already met the doctor." Geordi held out the data padd he had found, "He accosted your phaser and tried to hold us at bay with it, thinking we were the ones who injured you."

The captain took the padd, brandishing it in amusement before setting it on the bed next to her. She frowned ruefully, "I believe it. Can't say he's got much of a bedside manner."  
she admitted. Her chuckle made her put a hand to her head.  
"When I saw the outside energy field coming toward the ship,  
I told the doctor to expect company."

"Are you uncomfortable?" Dr. Crusher already had her tricorder on bioscan. "I can give you an analgesic."

"It's not that bad." Janeway shrugged, taking a deep breath, then her expression drifted into one of recollection, "We were halfway through with the phase alignments when Voyager was struck with what felt like a tractor beam. I was thrown off my feet. Red alert sounded. I tried to contact the bridge but the comm system was down." She waved a hand in front of her, "I couldn't call the arch. It was a minute later, and I was reconfiguring the EMH to see if I could get a message to the outside...when.." her voiced choked as she recalled her memory, "...when the deck split apart..from under me.."

Kathryn reeled emotionally, suddenly reseeing the nightmare she had lived through, "I saw only open spac--" Captain Janeway looked up in horror, "That was a warp core breach?"

Geordi was quick to reassure her, "Hey,...now we don't know that. Ship's sensors never registered a matter/anti-matter explosion. There...was a flash of light.. and your Voyager just....vanished."

Captain Janeway wanted desperately to be reassured that her crew was still alive.. She wasn't even entirely convinced of where she truly was let alone just who these two strangers were before her. It hurt to no longer be in control of her destiny.

::There has to be answers somewhere.:: Kathryn became the scientist her father once raised her to be. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Perhaps if I had a chance to look at your shuttle's sensor logs... There must have been something unusual occurring at the time..."

Dr. Crusher nodded, "There was. Geordi's visor began picking up an odd energy distortion like a carrier wave shortly after we left the Enterprise. Its effect had spread to one of the control panels when we found you."

"Which one?" said Janeway, standing on wobbly legs. Dr. Crusher hovered nearby to lend a firm arm if it was needed.

Geordi moved forward to the main chairs, "Helm station one. But the computer can't seem to detect it." Captain Janeway took the indicated chair. Geordi and Dr. Crusher clustered around her,  
wondering what she could learn when they couldn't from the flickering screen.

"Ah, but WE can. That's the important thing. Now, if I try remodulating the comparator..." She paused, "May I ,  
commander?" she asked, indicating the panel before her.

Geordi shrugged, he added with a grin, "You do outrank us,  
captain."

Kathryn smiled. "Thanks." she said as she set up an algorithm sequence.. The screen's flickering turned into regular bands of color which scrolled from top to bottom in wavy meanders.

Geordi's grip tightened on the back of the chair, "Wait a sec,  
I know what this is. This signal IS an S.O.S. Someone's in trouble out there."

Dr. Crusher frowned, "But where..? We can't seem to pinpoint it, and the Kilamanjaro.."

Geordi concurred with her, "...won't rendevous with us for another two days, I know. But I'm sure having this thing pounding away inside my head for much longer will drive me up the wall. The computer's not going to be much help at all.  
We're going to have to figure out this one all on our own."

Captain Janeway had finished reviewing the logs, "There's not much to go on here. Any suggestions?"

Geordi didn't like not having an easy answer, "I don't know."

Dr. Crusher was looking thoughtful, "Captain.. you said earlier that it was significant that only our physical senses could detect this signal."

Kathryn's smile beamed through the dirt on her face, "Mr. LaForge.." She indicated the copilot chair, "Ever heard of a fox hunt? Well, There's a scent out there somewhere and you're the best hound we've got. Have a seat. We're going hunting." She disconnected a couple of dionode relays from the the service panel by her knees and held them ready.

Geordi's grin spread into comprehension, "You're rerouting my visor's impulses into the navigational array." He sat down next to her and got out the shuttle tool kit. He handed her a chamber's coil.

Captain Janeway nodded as she worked, "If we're lucky, the closer we get to the signal's origin, the more focused it will become for you. Then we can home in on it through your interpretative account." She finished a minor adjustment, "There. How does that seem?"

Geordi frowned, "It's linked. But I won't be able to see to fly."

Captain Janeway shrugged, cracking her knuckles, "Just direct me. It's been a while. This is a type VI, isn't it?" she quipped. Her short laugh sent a pang through her head and she couldn't hide the resultant groan that escaped under her breath.

Geordi noticed her discomfort, "Listen, if you're not up to this.."

Dr. Crusher agreed by crossing her arms sternly.

Janeway sighed, "All right. You have the conn, Dr. Crusher." She pulled ashy uniform material away from an itchy shoulder, "I'm going to go take a shower.." She rose, moving toward the aft section of the shuttlecraft.

Beverly called out after her, "If there's anything I can get you..."  
She held up the medkit significantly for emphasis, "Let me know..."

Kathryn spoke over her shoulder, "How about a uniform?"

"Use cargo hold replicator B. Code up 147." Geordi replied.

Captain Janeway turned around, coming back to the front, "Oh, and one more thing..." she said. She met both of their eyes wistfully.

"What's that?" asked Crusher.

The glint in the Voyager captain's eye was almost feral, "You wouldn't happen to have any...real..coffee around here anyplace,  
now would you?"

"Only Jamaican Dark." Beverly said matter of factly.

"Perfect." Janeway grinned broadly, "Back in two minutes." The excited woman practically flew light speed around the corner;  
a long cloud of soot trailing in her wake.

"Caffeine addiction?" Geordi wondered. He occupied himself with beaming out the mess still littering the transporter pad.

Dr. Crusher smiled diffidently, "Or deep space deprivation syndrome." Geordi's brow furrowed. Crusher elaborated, "Picture Barclay without his holodeck priviledges."

The engineer shivered, "OOooo. Nasty." He turned back to work.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The air crackled in blue sunlit chill off the gleaming hull of the Batai. Three sienna parkas milled around just outside her exit hatch. Geordi grinned, blowing out a steamy breath in sheer pleasure. ::This winter world is comparatively mild.:: he thought , checking his scanning tricorder held in one thickly gloved hand.  
::Only minus three degrees C. Not even cold enough for envirosuits:  
The erstwhile navigator gave an affectionate pat to the little ship's side, "And I thought I couldn't do it. It's not every day I get to pilot a shuttle fully blind."

Dr. Crusher, too, was studying her tricorder for lifesign readings in the immediate area. She was sardonic, "We're here." then, under her breath, "..minus some paint." Louder she encouraged both Geordi and the new captain with them, "Luckily, the rendevous ship will come looking for us." She shifted her line of sight and aimed her scanner at Geordi's position, "How's the signal now?" she asked.

"Gone at the moment. It's been quiet ever since we landed." He read an indicator, "No signs of higher life other than isolated pockets of greenery for three kilometers around."

Captain Janeway leaned on the shuttle, testing the depth of the snow about her feet. It felt deliciously familiar.:: It's like,...Indiana in January.:: Then she thought for a moment, surprised, "Photosynthesizing plants? Here? I thought Endicor III was sub alpine all year round."

"It is." Geordi crouched over an ice dome full of delicate mossy fronds. "But they're here now." He sighed, and stood once more,  
"Invitation sent. Invitation answered." His comment sounded small in the surrounding stillness. "Now, only if we knew where the party was."

"We'll wait." decided Janeway. "I have a feeling we aren't alone here. Put out a hail over the universal translator." Kathryn studied the horizon and the frozen waist high fossils of trees jutting from the glacial ice, "Maybe we'll ring the doorbell."

Dr. Crusher spoke from the ground, "Captain." she said thoughtfully, "I'd like to get a plant sample for analysis." She pointed to Geordi's entombed snow ferns, "These weren't here during the last topological surveys. Further analysis might reveal some clues we aren't aware of yet."

"Do it." Janeway nodded, "I'll get the doctor to help you." Kathryn pulled out the augmented datapad from her field pack and toggled its main switch. The holographic EMH shimmered into view with one hand grasping empty air like the phaser it once held,"...shut me down like a...Captain! You're better!...At least, I hope so."  
He cleared his throat. But that failed to hide the anger in his voice, "These two hooligans tried to hold me prisoner behind a forcefield that--"

"I'm well aware of what transpired, doctor. Thank you. But let me get you up to date. We're back in the Alpha Quadrant. That's definite now. But the ship is...." her face twisted in painful memory, "missing... " She took a breath, "These two hooligans, as you so call them, went through a lot of trouble to save my life and your holoprogram." and then she smiled.

The hologram waxed sheepish. He put down the hand that no longer contained a fully charged weapon, "Oh. In that case." He turned to the wary two watching him, "Thank you for rescuing myself and Captain Janeway. Its seems to me that your treatment of the captain's injuries appear to have been adequate."

Beverly snorted, "Adequate? ADEQUATE?! After fifteen years of medical practice..Captain, " she waved a hand at Janeway, "I mean no disrespect, but do we really have to listen to this this...this--" She pointed at the doctor.

"Tactless, overbearing overstimulated pile of isolinear chips?  
I'm afraid so." interceded Kathryn. "His lab skills are beyond reproach. Don't worry. He'll grow on you." She chuckled. "Doctor, see what you can do to help Dr. Crusher here get a few samples of those icebound plants over there. They seem to have made a miraculous appearance since the last planetary sweep of this sector."

The hologram sputtered for a few seconds then was distracted when Geordi began studying his holomatrix with his visored vision, "Amazing.. So he's an Alpha One series, huh.. and still in medicinal practice."

Geordi paced away planning their search route.

The EMH leaned into Janeway, "Wh..what did he mean by that?"

The captain shrugged, and pointed downward with a finger over the tricorder she was using to measure the primary's blue light intensity scale.

He bent to work, rolling his eyes.

Kathryn nodded her approval of him, "Sorry doctor, but I am just as much in the dark here as you are about all of this, and LaForge and the doctor are too, apparently. Try to be patient for a little while, huh? Some answers are bound to materialize very soon. They always do."  
She set a glove on the doctor's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The EMH returned a half smile.

Then Janeway turned to Geordi, "Mr. LaForge."

"Yes, maam." he answered crisply.

His reply was a shock to Kathryn. That acknowledgement had sounded just like Tom Paris's. His presence whispered in her mind. She suddenly felt the loss of her crew acutely.

Kathryn missed Chakotay's quiet strength and Tuvok's calm guidance. The new urge she had felt growing inside of her to see Earth and the people she knew there, was sullied of any joy. ::They could all be dead right now.::she reasoned, ::And here I am still very much alive.. What cosmic irony, a ship's captain, sole survivor.:: She swallowed the tight knot in her throat. ::Before I know any rest or comfort. I will know the final fate of my ship's family..I owe them that answer at the very least.::

Straightening, she shook off her melancholy, "Run a complete surface scan of the area on shuttle's sensors. Even if we can't find that distress signal itself, the equipment it was generated from might be detectable now. It's not as if the surface ground's a mecca for metal ores." She sealed her tricorder and pocketed it.

"I'll get right on it." The engineer disappeared inside the Batai.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Four cups of coffee later, elbow deep in lab apparatus, Janeway and the two doctors had made some progress. Several of the Endicoriian plants were lined up in test tubes to thaw. The hologram's critical eye was magnified through on tube's solute as he peered closely at the bits of green showing through the ice, "It's cellulitic DNA shows signs of bilitrium metabolism."

Captain Janeway strained free a memory, "Similar to those tropical plants on Argyle Major, I assume."

The doctor raised his eyebrows, "Excellent recall, Captain.  
That's exactly right. Although how an Amazonian species type is viable on this world remains a mystery. Now, all that remains is spectral bioanalysis."

Dr. Crusher looked up from her computer screen, "We'll have those results in a few minutes."

Janeway crossed her arms together. She was pleased, "Good work, doctors. Now if only--"

A triumphant hoot kissed their ears from the sensor station.  
Janeway and Crusher were amused as they joined Geordi at his side. His shout had confused the hologram, "Are you all right, lieutenant commander?" he asked.

Geordi spun around in his chair, "Never better, doc!" he chuckled eagerly, "I got something!"

Dr. Crusher leaned in closer, studying his data, "You've found the signal's source?"

"Not..exactly." the engineer answered, "I've been tracking areas of land showing significant temperature elevations.  
Look here." He pointed to a bright red cluster on the softer blues and purples of the LCARS display.  
"New pockets of botanical life seem to be forming in a linear pattern half a kilometer from here." he concluded.

Janeway wanted to know more but she didn't want to dampen the young man's enthusiasm one bit. He was much like Harry Kim in that respect, "Huh. No chance of thermal vents freeing them with volcanic activity?"

"None. Volcanic activity is nonexistent on Endicor. No riparian hot springs to speak of." Geordi replied.  
"The fact that there are lower plant forms here now is impossible.."  
Kathryn considered the possibilities,"Geologic formations warmed by the sun or mechanized heat signatures?"

"Neither." noted Dr. Crusher suddenly, she let out the breath she was holding. "These are footprints. I'm sure of it. I've seen these kinds of traces before on a polar rescue mission. We tracked survivors through their body heat trails left behind in the snow."

Captain Janeway wanted conformation of that theory, fast.  
"Scan those coordinates. Life signs?" She suppressed an irrational hope that they had somehow found surviving Voyager crew members out there.

"I can't tell anything. Look." Geordi pointed to a new flare on the monitor, "These are new changes. Ambient ground temperature just rose fifty degrees C."

The hologram doctor scoffed, "That's impossible! It would take weeks for that to happen. And only then, in a growing season. Which, I might add, has never occurred on this planet before. Well, except for the few seasons which grew this dead forest."

Captain Janeway held up a hand, "Doctor, I appreciate your insightful commentary but debating the issue here isn't the answer. We have to just find another way to find out the truth and we're going to work at it until we get it, is that clear?"

"Very." the doc replied.

"But..." Janeway held up an index finger, "If you have any theories regarding this phenomena.."

The hologram drew up tall, "I have none for the moment.  
But, captain, I assure you that I cannot fail to have this crew's best interests at heart. Even if I have to stew vegetables with the best of them." He held up a tube of heated samples with a pair of thongs.

Janeway bit her lip, trying to keep a straight face.  
"Fine.. so... we have to get over there somehow, discreetly. I don't want much of a disturbance until we see just what we're dealing with. There just may be an alien race that cannot be picked up on our bio scans. And there's no definite machinery signatures...so that leaves a possible prewarp civilization. Taking the shuttle's out." She rubbed her face, "Other options?"

Geordi shrugged, "I can rig the site to site transporters to trace where the newest heat sources are forming.. We can beam under cover to that spot by using portable pattern enhancers. The computer could coordinate..."

Captain Janeway had already found her phaser and her parka, "Let's go everyone."

The hologram made for the transporter pad but Janeway stopped him, "I'm sorry doctor. Only room enough for three. I'd like you to stay here and finish the analyses."

The doctor rolled his eyes, "Of course." he sighed,  
"Leave all the dirty work for the hologram. He won't mind. He's not real." he stabbed a computer control oblivious to Crusher's wincing at his very real appearing simulation of hurt feelings, "I'm picking up a low grade anti-lepton field emanating from the bedrock at the beam in site. It might further interfere with your tricorder scans."

Geordi angled his head, "All the better we get in closer for a look see." He said, tapping his visor with emphasis. He began handing out the metallic arm bands necessary for the coming transport, "Doc." he called out.

"Hmm?" the EMH replied.

Geordi pointed ceilingward, "Try to get along with the computer, huh? I'm putting it on surveillance mode. Computer, full alert status."

Captain Janeway completed her prechecks of their pack equipment, "Ready?"

Dr. Crusher hugged her medkit, "Ready..." She just wanted to get on with things. Not knowing a situation didn't sit well with her at all.

Geordi noticed a questioning glance from Janeway, "We'll be back in twenty five minutes. I've rigged the computer to pull us home automatically." he volunteered.

Janeway nodded in satisfaction, "Energize." she ordered.  
The three officers sparkled into golden pillars of light and transferred out of the tiny shuttle's cabin.

Alone, the hologram doctor eyed the room nervously, "Computer.." he addressed it. It warbled in reply and he stated, "This is the emergency medical holographic program speaking." He swallowed, "Let's set a few ground rules, shall we? Never, I repeat,  
never activate a containment field so close around my holomatrix again. I don't think my hairline will ever be the same again." He put a hand to his head, measuring, "It feels like it's receded by a full three centimeters."

The computer emitted a single dry bleep at him without saying a word.

--------------------------------------------------------

The woods by the frozen plain were stark. But they echoed a pure energy song. Three spots of burnt orange resolved themselves from the air and began to move.

"Bingo! Footprints!" Geordi visor saw them clearly outlined in the blue star's sapphire daylight, "And they're headed off that way!" He pointed into the thicker trees.

"Let's follow them." Janeway gestured.

Dr. Crusher was halted by an insistent bioflag on her scanner. "Captain! Geordi! Over here." She was crouched over smatterings of red on a knee high rock face. The substance appeared to have been recently frozen. "I'm reading alien DNA. This is blood. It's only been oxygenated for a few minutes."

Geordi and Janeway drew their phasers. They all stood, in a protective circle, searching the woods with their eyes. Dr. Crusher intently passed her tricorder round them completely, checking the landscape thoroughly, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing.."  
she said.

Geordi was frank, " I wish I had some clues here. Is this an innocent accident or was someone wounded in an attack?" he said, gesturing to the blood on the stone.  
His frustration was apparent.

"Easy ." Janeway cautioned him, "Sooner or later, we'll find out. Let's just plan on a course of action and go from there." She turned and headed for the footprints, "Forget about these," she said,  
brandishing her phaser, "If we are being watched, I don't want to appear hostile. Enable the universal translator on your combadges. We'll try to reach someone that way." Kathryn tapped hers twice while she walked, "Whoever it is who's bleeding can't be far away. There's a lot of it on that rockface."

Dr. Crusher called out once her insignia was set to passive translate like Janeway's. She called out,  
"Is anybody here? We know you're hurt. We came to help you!"

But there was no reply from the trees.

They kept moving along the broken, irregular line of steps in the snow, shouting as they went.

Janeway joined in with Crusher, "We need to find where you are. Shout if you can hear us!"

Her echo died away in the chill brightness. But the shuttle group was no longer alone; the lavender eyes of the special child regarded the away team in fear. Ariel was hiding under a thick clump of trees. ::Oh no! The strangers have found the Guardian's trail.:: She knew she had to get around them undetected in order to give her teacher the energy she had found to make him well again.  
She carefully prevented the sunlight from glinting off the pyramid she clutched even tighter at the sight of the humans. She sank lower into the snow. Her fanning hair made her almost invisible against the frost.

The searchers stopped only a few meters away from Ariel's niche. The tiny unicorn girl was amazed she could understand the speakings coming from their faces.

"Is the universal translator working?" Dr. Crusher frowned to Geordi.

He tapped his tricorder and then his badge, "Clear as a bell." Then he checked the chronometer on his wrist.  
"We've got twenty minutes left this sweep before the autobeam back." Then he let out an exasperated sigh,  
"And still no detectable life sign readings."

Janeway didn't look up from the path they were following. "We're just going to have to reset the transporter pad timer and come back when time runs out, that's all." she said moving on.

Ariel froze stock still when the captain's foot nearly stepped on her. But her mind and body blending was firm. She was not detected. She watched the three move away at a near run, pointing their devices along the scarlet line of the Guardian's heart fluid dotting along the way.

-----------------------------------------------------

The away team had gone nearly to the bottom of the valley when Geordi doubled over, clutching his head. Steam was rising into the cold from his sweaty features and he groaned, "Ugh!  
Damn!" He nearly fell. Reflexively, Crusher and the captain caught him.

Beverly asked, "The visor signal again?" She held him steady while he shook his head to clear it. She saw that he wasn't as near to fainting as he had been the first time the signal began..yet.

Geordi straightened up, getting a handle on the mental and visual noise in his mind. "Yeah. Only this time it feels like somebody's drilling home with a subsonic transmitter."

Dr. Crusher was worried. Geordi's brain signature was levelling off into abnormal into stress patterns, "Let's get you back to the shuttle."

"Nah, I'm all right. We'll get pulled back there soon enough anyway. I think I got a handle on it already, I am beginning to learn how to tone it down."

Janeway gave him a doubtful look, "Lieutenant Commander.."  
she warned.

"Listen, " Geordi insisted, "We've got to find this guy and stop this signalling. Knocking me out isn't going to solve my problem. I can still help search. Might even be better to have me here to point the way." he gestured over a rise, "It's louder that way.." And he broke out of Beverly's grip, stumbling a little on the trail.

Captain Janeway turned to Dr. Crusher, "Is he at risk if we stay out here longer?"

"I don't think so. His vitals are stable." she replied.

"Then let's wait until recall." She gestured to proceed onward.

--------------------------------------------------------

It was only a minute later when the bundled engineer halted in his tracks and the two women almost bumped into him,  
"Wait a minute. The footprints. They're gone!"

Crusher and Janeway were stunned. The way ahead was only unbroken snow. Kathryn's patience was greatly shortened, "I don't understand this. There's no other way out of the valley."

Crusher pushed back her hood, "He must've doubled back."

Geordi disagreed, "He couldn't have. Our tricorders would've picked up the higher infrared trace and alerted us."

Dr. Crusher looked up into the trees, "Unless he had a means to fly away. We don't know what his species is capable of doing yet."

Captain Janeway was listening to the two Enterprise officers' discussion only halfway. She broadened their line of thinking inside her own thoughts. ::This signal of Geordi's seems to defy all of our standard equipment scans easily. The only accepting device is the engineer's personal visor. Hmm. Perhaps we can try a more sophisticated sensor.::

She tapped her combadge causing LaForge and Crusher to fall silent in curiosity, =^=Janeway to the Batai. Doctor, do you read me?=^=

In the shuttle's cabin, the hologram straightened from his work, "Yes, captain. Loud and clear. Is there a medical emergency?"

=^=Sorry to disappoint you. But I do require your services in another manner. Do me a favor. Beam yourself to our coordinates but remember to bring your program housing datapadd along too. An inconvenience, I know but..=^=

"I understand the reason for bringing it along.  
My holoemitter wasn't needed with us on Voyager's holodeck before we ended up here in the Alpha Quadrant, so naturally, I don't have it now. We'll just have to muddle through with my holo testing padd. I'll be there in seventeen seconds." the EMH finished for her.

=^=We'll be expecting you.=^=

The doctor thought for a moment before he stepped up onto the transporter disk behind the lab tables he had set up.

He snatched up a medkit for the lieutenant commander from the wall clip, "Computer. One to beam to the away team's coordinates. Energize."

He shimmered into light beams.

The holodoc appeared in moments at Captain Janeway's side.  
She greeted him warmly, "Glad you could join us. I wasn't positive how far a Type VI shuttle could project your holomatrix through that pad."

Geordi piped up, "Three thousand kilometers, captain."

She looked at the young man with amusement.

"Uh.. I've been doing equations to drown out the visor pulses and that equation just happened to be one of them." he said.

Janeway smiled and nodded, "Thanks."  
She crouched down into the snow over a footprint that hadn't been stepped in by one of the away team. She pointed to it, "Doctor, what do you see?"

The EMH looked toward the ground to where she indicated. He looked up almost right away, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

Dr. Crusher and Geordi watched this exchange with interest.

Janeway shrugged, "Feel free to interpret. In any way you'd like." Kathryn invited.

The hologram scratched his unreal head and spoke, "I see..compressed snow in the shape of a humanoid footprint."

"Captain, what are y--" Geordi began.

She gestured mildly for him to wait a moment.

The hologram twitched, "....and traces of charged tachyon particle decay."

Kathryn's heart leaped, "The same experimental energy that we were testing on Voyager's holodeck with the EMH before the ship..." She couldn't finish her words.

Geordi spoke to give her a moment to handle her emotions.  
"But why didn't my visor detect that?" He stood up, looking back the way they had come.

"Ah.." the holodoc elucidated, "You're forgetting the anti-  
lepton field I found emanating from the rocks in this region.  
Such a field would reduce your visor's effectiveness and mask certain biosignature frequencies." He smile was smug.

"No wonder I hardly detected the DNA in those blood stains."  
Beverly sighed.

"And why we probably aren't reading any alien lifesigns to go along with them." Geordi added. "But the doc's input matrice is uneffected. That was good thinking , captain.  
We can track our man now through the tachyon particles where they lead even though the wind covered up the footprints."

--------------

Ariel gasped. ::These people are closer to finding us because of this new man made of light. I have to stop them! Now.::

She closed her lilac eyes.

---------------

Down in the valley, Geordi craned his head, looking up, "What's that noise?"

Janeway and the others moved by his side. There was only the quiet sound of the wind through the icy treetops.  
"I don't hear anything." She glanced at the EMH, "Doctor?"

The holodoctor shook his head in the negative.

LaForge began sweating and he moaned as the cacophony rose into a teeth wrenching whine inside his head. Then he knew what it was. "Freeze! Everyone! That humming. I know that sound."

"Geordi, we don't h--" Dr. Crusher began.

LaForge looked down by their feet. "Bombs! In clear casings! They're all around us!"

His companions whirled in place in alarm without moving their feet. Seeing nothing odd was visible, Janeway readjusted her tricorder scans. Her proximity scan continued to show normal.  
"Mr. LaForge. Explain. I don't see anything wr--"

Dr. Crusher tossed her head slightly to the EMH and then again at Geordi. Together, they stepped towards him. "Geordi.  
Let us help--"

The engineer yelled in panic, "Don't move! Either one of you.  
There's one by your feet and it's set to blow!" ::What is the matter here? I can see the heat surging off of these things.  
There's four of them. Why can't anyone else see them?::

Dr. Crusher glanced again at her boots. ::Only snow. What th-?::

The EMH was also baffled, "I also see nothing wrong here. " He turned addressing Beverly, "Doctor. He is clearly hallucinating.  
The Batai will lock onto us in two minutes, seven seconds. I suggest we--"

Just then, the holodoc winked out. Janeway barely caught the doctor's program padd he had been carrying before it hit the ground, "nghhh!" she said, lurching forward.

Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw Geordi was in desperate motion, towards her. She heard his urgent shout. "It's gonna explode!"

Suddenly, Janeway was pushed, hard by him, off the path. Rolling downhill, she fought for her feet in the slippery snow. Meters away, Geordi had also tackled Dr. Crusher away from the narrow trail, "Run!!" he shouted at them, "They're going to go any sec--!!"

~ ~ Captain Janeway's world was suddenly gone. It was if a great gush of warmth had lifted her up and took the weight from her body. She was ...floating. Kathryn opened her eyes and saw only a strange rainbow mist surrounding her, coaxing and sweet. She hugged the only solid thing she could feel, the doctor's data padd close to her chest and just breathed. Her mind was completely free. The overwhelming joy she felt flooded into every nook and cranny of her being. It was only slightly tinged with fear when she realized that she was no longer on the planet. She was somewhere else entirely.  
Pleasant images nursed her spirit. She had closed her eyes once more when her heartbeat unexpectedly began to quiet.

The Voyager captain winked out.

~ ~

~

~ ~

~

Geordi saw that Captain Janeway had vanished into thin air. :  
It's that gold flash of light again. The one Dr. Crusher and I saw just before we beamed the captain on board.:: He struggled to his feet, going to the last place he had seen her. "Stay down Beverly!!" He found one of the bombs where the Voyager captain had been, "This isn't happening. Captain! Where are you?!"

The bomb exploded in his face.

------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Janeway came to little by little. She was on her back and totally warm. Blearily, she could just make out a pair of tiny lavender eyes above her own. ::What a beautiful shade..::she thought. ::They are almost ...speaking...to me:  
Kathryn felt a tug and something she was holding was pulled out of her hands. ::Those....eyes... They're the eyes of a child,..aren't they?::

Sighing, Janeway felt herself slip back into darkness.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The land was silent in the valley. The blue sun had fled behind green clouds and the frigid air was heavy. But the eternal snow field was no longer completely unbroken. The still forms of Geordi and Dr. Crusher lay in a small patch of steaming, living earth, devoid of ice. New alien plants there steamed slowly, filling the air with a spicy fog. They awoke, their parka sleeves rustling in the vivid green grass.

Dr. Crusher coughed, lifting her head. She didn't sweep away the hair that was in her eyes. Her voice was slurred, "Whaa?" She was dimly aware that she was on her stomach. And the air was beginning to strangle her subtly. She was completely numb, not knowing where she was or why.

Spasming with pins and needles, her hand struck a soft downy shoulder.

She knew who the prone form next to her was. "Geord-??"

LaForge stirred to consciousness as well, face up. The buzzing sky made him wince behind his visor. "Is that you, Be-Bev?" He could not remember her whole first name. Nor the fact that they were missing a third member to the group.

"I'm O.-- hey.." He started to look around, "Something's.........wrong." He started to gag in deep nausea, but couldn't find the strength to roll over to clear his mouth.

Beverly noticed, too, choking slightly, "Bad ai--. Got to get.."  
She pulled Geordi by the back of his parka collar until they were both well out over the snowpack once more. She managed to get him onto his side just before she herself vomited. She watched as he was ill, too, resting her face on the cool ice in relief, not caring when her skin adhered to it. The clenching numbness receded but the fog in her mind remained,  
eating at her memory. She concentrated on her breathing,  
half listening to Geordi's labored gasps as well with some trained part of her but then she began to drift in and out.

--

Geordi stirred again a minute later. He was still slightly sick and a strange confusion held his thinking in a vise's grip.  
He rested, focusing his visor's sight on a fossilized tree branch above him.

Soon his head made a little sense, "Wh--What happened?" He sat up,  
almost flopping back down again. His arms were weak as water.  
"Beverl--" he said looking to the woman he knew near him.

She was still on her stomach, her head down but she spoke, "What?  
How did-- How did we?"

Geordi squinted his pounding eyes and groaned, "I'm ...I'm not sure.  
You..wanted us to...move away from..." He pointed over to the eerily rainbow fogging clearing a short distance away.."over there.. You dragged....me." The ferns there waved in a breeze. A curl of sweetened fog reached him from the growing place and his breath was stolen from him.  
Geordi pulled himself further away from the area quickly until the artic cold burned his throat once more. Breaths came easier soon after. "Come..on--"

Dr. Crusher followed suit but more slowly. Rising off the ground, she felt something bite visciously into her left side when she slipped on the ice beneath her. She grabbed at it and held up a wet phaser,  
backwards, with its muzzle pointed at her chest. "Whaa?"

Blinking and coughing, Geordi croaked, "Where did you get th--?"

Dr. Crusher looked at the curving object of silver and black without comprehension. Then she remembered who they were searching for out in the snow. "I fell on it. Geordi.  
Maybe it's his..." she gasped. She tossed the thing to LaForge.

His coordination was off and he missed his catch. He had to use both trembling hands to pick up the phaser again.  
He looked down, noticing the same object in his belt. "No, this this...thing is ours. I'm wearing one." ::His? OH. The one we have to find. My god.. Where?::

Dr. Crusher moaned, "He's hurt." She hugged her medkit closer to herself. "We haven't much time...at all. This snow could kill him out there if we can't fi--"

"I know." Geordi said in weary resignation. He studied the phaser in his hands. The image of it fuzzed in his sight and what it was fled him. He guessed. "Maybe this is his transmitter. We could call him, T-tell him we're coming.."  
He unknowingly held the muzzle towards his face, "If I could just figure out how to turn it on.." His finger started to depress the firing mechanism, "by this button...thing."

Another of the crystalline bombs materialized a foot away from Beverly's foot. Geordi shouted and dropped the phaser, "Not another one! We've got to get OUT of here!!"

Together, muzzy doctor and engineer staggered to their feet, lurching horribly. But their coordination was as bad as their memory. They fell to the ground again. Geordi raged in his helplessness, "Go!! G--"

Dr. Crusher stared at him, "I don't understand. There's noth--"

A cataclysmic explosion ripped the air.

Geordi flung Beverly away from it as far as he could but they both found themselves tumbling into a new patch of misting ivys. Blackness laughed at them.

Time felt like taffy when Geordi stirred out of his choking stupor. He struggled to his knees to an incessant whine that was familar. It was coming from a device he knew!  
It was an open tricorder on lifescan. All the readings were red. And it lay right next to a silent Dr. Crusher.

Geordi understood the readings like a jolt of lightning.  
"No! Beverly!"

He had rolled her onto her back and had both hands on the medkit when a transporter effect took hold. Geordi,  
Dr. Crusher, and the medkit disappeared... but in his haste, one of the signal enhancer armbands, was knocked off and left behind in the torn snowfield.

--------------------------------------------------

The firm grip of materialization released Geordi and his burden on the shuttle's floor.

##Auto transport complete.##

The engineer was flat on his back, groaning.

The tricorder on the carpeting was still sounding shrill warning. Muzzy, Geordi struggled to turn off his back, "Bever--Breathe!"

She lay near him, unmoving.

The computer bleeped, ##Detecting high stress voice pattern. Do you require medical assistance?##

Geordi remembered, "Compu-- Biob--!"

The computer, still in its preset surveillance mode,  
slid into a self analysis, ##Two occupants. Human.  
Oxygen inundation initiated.... Biobed activated.##

A light over a long bench at the back of the shuttle craft turned on. A panel recessed into the wall activated and began to glow.

Geordi heard its ready tone. He breathed great gulps of air, still struggling to turn over, feeling himself half paralyzed. ::Think. Move! Or she's gonna die!!::

He heaved to one side and his legs hit the lab specimen table the EMH had set out. The plant filled test tubes fell to the floor and shattered, their thawed contents splashing onto the carpeting, releasing their strange fog.

A new wave of dizziness gripped Geordi.

The computer chimed once again, ##Occupant life signs critical. Life support standing by. Transport immediately.##

Then the answer dawned on Geordi's foggy mind, "Tr--Transporter!"  
He glanced Dr. Crusher's left arm for the reassuring pattern enhancer, "Execut--" He stopped in horror. Beverly's armband was missing. "Belay tha-- order!!"

Geordi began to fight a growing weight in his awareness, "Come on. Reach!" he told himself. Straining, he flopped one hand to his upper arm and ripped off his own arm band. He tossed it into the air and it landed on Dr. Crusher's back, "Computer! Priority med-transport. One to life support biobed. Immediate. Energize!!"

He log rolled out of range as the sparkles of transport took her. Dr. Crusher materialized onto the medical couch. Geordi dragged himself hand over hand to her side and lowered the life support unit down over her torso.

The computer, after a long string of electronic notes,  
spoke ##Life support initiated. Vital signs.....stabilized.##

Beverly began to breathe.

Exhausted beyond consciousness, Geordi emitted a huge sigh and passed out.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Ariel had found her Guardian again soon after the strangers had been silenced. His heart's fluid no longer oozed from his arm wound. She helped him to the bluish fire as best as she could as night fell over the wood.

Her small hot offering of food much revived him but he spoke little. Until he saw the strange woman lying at the edge of the of the firelight, "Ariel. Who is that?"

The unicorn child flinched and her button horn's light dimmed,  
she was suddenly shy, "She's not one of THEM, Guardian. I checked. They're still in their...Continuum." she said with disgust. "But this one has a man of light who knows things about you."

The Guardian cradled his slowly healing arm wound. He was glad the strange female wasn't awake. He could see her silver armaments from where he was sitting still on her belt. He was too tired to run any more. "Show me this man of light.."  
he whispered to his charge, nestling his lips into her white hair.

The small child scrambled over to a cache in the rocks and she unburied a small flat, metal object. "He is in here." she sniffed, brushing away the milky hair from her face. "I saw the leading woman do this to get him out."  
She pushed a control gently, without activating it, "I used distance touch on it to put him back."

He put Ariel on his lap, keeping Captain Janeway within his line of sight, "Clever thinking. Now.....why is this woman over there not awake? Hmm?" ::I have to be careful. This rare child is rapidly becoming more dangerous before her time.::

"I brought her to Paradise." she said, feeding a stick to the flames.

A cold shock gripped the Guardian. ::Ariel has gotten through the dimensional barriers already?.::

The girl was oblivious to her teacher's reaction. "She was happy there. But she couldn't stay. Her light got all wrong and almost left her." She stretched and he felt her press a squarish silver box into his hands. "I found this with the false man."

Inside, the Guardian found devices the same color as the unconscious woman's armaments. He set it aside cautiously. Seconds later, he trembled as another abnormal spasm gripped him. Something beyond the Change was happening to him that he didn't understand. It was tied to Ariel's doing somehow. But exactly how eluded him as easily as smoke on the wind.

He decided to find out about the newly arrived strangers.  
"Ariel.." he whispered into her ear as she melted an icicle with the power of her mind. "Don't be frightened. I am freeing the man made of light."

Ariel stiffened, and her tiny hands covered his lips, "No no..no..not yet." Her lilac eyes filled with tears. "I--I have something.." she said eagerly, "Something you need."  
She drew the small thing she had found from the pocket in her robe. "I-I want to give you..this."

Even before it was in his hands, the Guardian felt her gift's presence like a healing balm. He held the pyramid against his cheek, reveling in its delicacy.

It was a sliver of...home itself. The merest shred of Paradise but enough to sate his very soul. This time,  
he could not question her. For this time, it was HIS deliverance.

Something that was grossly wrong seemed, touched,...by the object. The long borne ache in his arm and soul began to recede.

The Guardian did not feel Ariel reach over and call the man made of light.

----

"...get him sedated and...Hello?" The hologram EMH noticed the old man and the child lost in their hug immediately.

Then he saw his main priority, "Captain!" He didn't like Janeway's lack of response to his shout one bit. "Excuse me." he said politely, extricating his medkit from the ground next to the Guardian's hand.

The doctor made his way over to Kathryn as quickly as he could in the straightest line he could travel and the camp fire did little to stop him.

"Captain.." he called out, feeling for the pulse at her throat and the movement of air between her lips. Two seconds later, his bioprobe gave results.

She was in a protective state. ::Deeply unconscious.  
Her neural tissues are still showing signs of temporal displacement. And her vitals are near coma levels from the cold. I wonder what happened to her parka?::

The EMH spoke up, "I'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from sending unknown humanoids like us out of this particular dimension. It does more harm than good. We're not Q you know."

The old man whirled at the name of his pursuers. He placed Ariel protectively behind him forcefully. His voice held real strength behind it now, "What do you know about THEM?!"

The doctor didn't miss a beat and brought out a neural stimulator and began passing its beams over Captain Janeway's head. He smiled when he glanced at his tricorder.  
::The worst of the displacement symptoms are being counteracted. The odd energy signature in her body cells is rapidly dispersing. A little triox should get good circulation back now.:: He injected the hypospray at her inner wrist and the EMH began to warm Janeway by rubbing her arms and legs to encourage blood flow. He addressed his alien companions with a frown, "I only know what my captain has chosen to share with me. Once, for example, Q tried to seduce her into having offspring by him to end some.....silly little war with his people."  
The EMH leaned over and snatched the Guardian's abandoned cloak up and covered Janeway snugly.  
"Although why anyone would think such a baby would have that ability at such a tender age is beyond me."

Ariel's posture and stance changed and she scrambled over to the captain's side. Her tiny face was filled with empathy and caring. The little girl timidly touched Janeway's cheek, "She has been like me then.." The little child met the doctor's eyes in sympathy, "Helpless before the Q.."

The doctor chortled, "Well I wouldn't say it in exactly that way. The captain is rarely ....helpless before anyone." The EMH sat Kathryn up, cradling her in his arms and carried her nearer to the fire. Once there, he set her down and resumed his warming treatment until her skin was pink and warm to the touch. ::Good. She's out of her hypothermia.::

The holodoc placed his last hypo down into the kit. Accidently,  
his eye fell on the phaser in Janeway's belt.

The Guardian saw the movement. In a flash, he held the doctor's augmented datapadd over the flames, "Tell me something, man made of light. Could your essence survive without this device to govern it?" His features hardened, "I'll allow no one to harm the child.."

Wisely, the doctor moved his hands away from his patient. "Like you I am here only to protect my crewmate. My advance on the phaser was unintentional. But as yet, I have no assurances that she is out of danger.... from you two." he said significantly.

"Guardian." Ariel said with solemn maturity, "Too many people have been harmed today and I am at fault for all of it." She took the holopadd from his hands and gave it to the EMH. In a blink,  
she mindsent the phaser into the doctor's palm and oriented it so that it pointed to her own head. "Here." she said.  
"I am not afraid if you use this on me after what I did to your captain." And she bowed her tiny head.

The doctor's response was curt but kind, "Young lady, I am not accustomed to taking lives for vengeance. I am programmed to save them." And he tossed the phaser away into the darkness, "As for your concern over the captain's health..."  
he looked down.

Kathryn's eyes were just opening. Ariel gave a joyful cry and knelt by her head, peering into her face.

Janeway's first awareness came quickly. ::Those eyes are here again. Those wonderful lilac eyes I saw in limbo. I feel.  
like ...anything is possible inside them.:: Then she blinked,  
shifting her gaze to the doctor's face. Full consciousness returned,"You found the alien.." she said to the EMH, smiling slightly in relief.

The hologram sighed, "I wish I could take the credit for it. But actually.....you did...carrying me." He said hefting up his datapadd. "Ariel here was curious about my holographic nature but didn't quite understand it. So I assume she had to bring us both here by the means she and the Guardian usually travel to their campsite until she figured out where my holomatrix was situated." the doctor grinned.

Kathryn sat up, feeling completely whole for the first time in a long while. She regarded the child with wonder, brushing a strand of hair away from Ariel's horn. "Are you all right?"  
she asked softly, smiling as a mother would. "We've been trying to find you. Your call for help was seen by one of my crewma--" She broke off casting her eyes around the campsite.  
"Doctor, have you seen any of the away team?"

Moments after Captain Janeway asked the question, she felt Ariel shrinking away from her touch ; curling in on herself mentally.

The EMH answered, "Not since we were discussing Mr. LaForge's worsening condition."

Again Janeway saw the unicorn child wince at the answer.  
::What is wrong here?:: she wondered.

The holodoc was oblivious, "Bombs indeed...Of all the things to hallucinate about.." he went on.

Janeway spoke quickly, "Doctor those devices were real, even though we couldn't see them. I saw one detonate just before I was....somehow...carried here. I remember floating.. I think."

Ariel whimpered. The Guardian drew up on her arm sharply, "Child!  
You haven't been summoning the still point, have you?"

The little girl looked very lost under his angry scowl.

Captain Janeway blanched, "Still point? Was that where I was?"

The doctor spoke, "Captain?" He wanted clarification of her experience to add to his knowledge of her current condition.

"It was a kind of.....juxtaposition between places...It was warm and peaceful...like summer... And the air was....spicy.." she paused, a dread filling her, "Those heat pockets we saw forming vegetation on the shuttle's sensors.." She turned to the Guardian,.."They're intrusions of this still point into our space?"

"Correct captain." The Guardian turned away from her, distraught.  
"Oh, Ariel." he said squatting down in front of her, "What have you done? Paradise must not be here. Ever. In this region, the point is chaotic and harms all that is living." He turned to the two Starfleet officers, "I'm sorry about your unexpected transference there, captain. It could have killed you easily..I.  
Soon... the still point will be my home...but.."

Ariel withdrew and hid in the Guardian's robes.

Janeway suddenly knew what had been happening. "The bombs only Geordi could see...." she realized aloud, "Ariel brought them. They open this still point into our dimension."  
She pointed to the dried blood on the Guardian's sleeve.  
"She sensed you were hurting and tried to get you home. Only all of her attempts failed. You got worse. Then she contacted the outside.  
looking to us...for help. And now we're here..." On a thought, she drew out her tricorder from her belt, "There are new pockets forming all over the planet. " She suppressed a growing fear,  
"Guardian,..what would happen if the away team if they or the shuttle slips into one of these rifts when neither you nor Ariel are there with them?"

The two alien refugees remained silent.

The doctor's expression shared volumes, "I..think...we'd better find them .... as soon as possible.." he fretted. "I was barely able to pull you, captain, back from a coma."

Janeway's felt her heart race, she widened her tricorder's range, sweeping its scans farther and farther out onto the frozen plain.  
"I can't locate the shuttle. They're out of range." She regarded the pattern enhancer still on her arm, "My ....traveling..must damaged the enhancer or they would've found us by now."

Janeway knelt in front of Ariel. "Ariel...no one's blaming you for anything." her voice broke slightly, "..You..were just watching out for your Guardian as I would do for any of my crew.  
Now..I have to find my lost people from the shuttlecraft.."  
She gripped Ariel's shoulders, trying to get the child to look at her again for any glimmer of the truth in her features.  
"Can you tell me where they are?"

With a cry, Ariel broke free and ran out of the ring of firelight.

The doctor started to go after her, clutching his padd.

"Let her go.." the Guardian said quietly, "I know where they are.." he said turning his face and seeming to feel something even deeper than the cold wind on his skin. "Tell me, captain.  
Is your traveling craft silver...like this?" He pointed to her tricorder.

"Yes it is.." she breathed, "We were by an open plain at the edge of a river valley on the northern continent."

"Follow me." The Guardian took up a burning brand and provisions.  
"Ariel used a rather large still point to bring you here, captain. We are two days walk from there. And I can not go into another transference, not yet. My Changing will not allow it."

He pointed out where Janeway could take up a second pack of food, water and blankets. "Use my cloak to keep warm. The chill no longer effects me." He handed her her phaser as well. "I called this back from where the doctor threw it into the brush."

"Thank you." Janeway replied.

The Guardian headed downhill.

He turned back when he noticed the humans started snuffing out the fire with snow.

He finished the task with a projection from his mind in an instant. "That is done. Leave this place. We must hurry. I am afraid that your friends may already be in danger.."

----------------------------------------------------------

There was silence throughout the Batai. A chronometer tone sounded in the darkness and an overhead light powered up,  
##Time 0900. Systems check enabled.##

Geordi groaned, coming awake at the noise. He rolled over, "Where am I? Dr. Crusher?" he called out groggily.

##Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge is on board the Federation Shuttlecraft Batai. Doctor Beverly Crusher is in biomedical stasis.##

"WHAT?!" Geordi was fully awake now. He struggled to stand but he found that his legs refused to move. He was paralyzed.  
He pushed that horrifying discovery aside and made his way over to the biobed on his stomach, scared to death for the doctor.

He felt for her heartbeat and breathing anyway in spite of the activity on the sensors glowing over the bed. For some reason, he couldn't make sense of any of the flashing lights or displays there. ::It's as if my mind no longer knows anything past the basics. Do I have amnesia?::

He slid to the floor sobbing and bumped the tricorder still sensing there. Its lights were green and its gentle tones were reassuring. ::That's good then:: Geordi thought, ::Isn't it?::

He gripped the strange seeming device, fighting emotions, "Beverly..I don't know what is happening to you or ..to me.  
But I promise you, I'll get us out of this..."

--------------------------------------------------------------

They were making good progress Janeway thought. ::In another day, we'll be at the shuttle.:: The captain had already discovered that her combadge suffered the same technological failure as her transporter enhancing arm band. It was just another disappointment to add to her growing list.

The doctor caught up into step with her as they followed the Guardian through the twisting valleys leading back to the shuttle's landing coordinates.  
"I have just discovered, that little Ariel is following us.." he said quietly smiling.

The Guardian looked relieved.

Captain Janeway sighed, "I hope she is learning something from all of this." She stepped over a fallen fossilized log. "I can't imagine what kind of hell she must be going through having that kind of power without completely understanding it."

The doctor was thoughtful, he turned to face her, "Speaking of unknown energy..Remember the charged tachyon decay I saw in the footprints?"

The sadness in Kathryn almost overwhelmed her. ::He means the charged tachyon energy left over from my ship's destroyed holodeck emitters. I really thought those footprints belonged to surviving crew from Voyager.:: "I remember." she said out loud. "That energy signature was similar to what B'Elanna had installed in the holodeck before Voyager was destr-" her voice broke and she looked skyward for distraction.

The doctor was not blind to her pain, "Yes.. well.. You would think the decay would fade over time." he said gently.

"You mean, it hasn't?" she asked.

The doctor shook his head, "I have noticed the tachyon emissions have not changed all day. In fact, not since I found you. Is this significant?"

Captain Janeway halted in her tracks, "We've been with the Guardian all that time.." she said out of the man's earshot.  
The EMH started to look forwards toward their guide but Janeway said, "No, don't look." she ordered. "Just listen. I want to see if you can pinpoint exactly where those emissions are coming from, where they're strongest. My guess is that our host knows more than he is letting on.."

"What do you think this means?" the holodoc whispered.

"I don't know just yet. But I am going to find out. Distract him doctor.."

He reached for his hypo laden kit.

Janeway grabbed his arm, hissing through her teeth, "Verbally if you don't mind. We need his tracking skills. And besides,  
I like him. Ariel obviously does too. And we wouldn't want Ariel to get angry with us, now would we?"

It only took a moment for the doctor to switch modes. Captain Janeway watched as he hurried on ahead to join up with the Guardian to talk. She could not, for the life of her, quell the strange feeling of apprehension she felt growing in the pit of her stomach.

She waited for his cue.  
Finally, it came.

"Captain.." the doc called back to her, "I need your advice on a small matter." He gestured subtly for her to join them on the Guardian's other side.

She played along, "Guardian." she said reaching them,  
"Could you tell me how these intrusions of the still point we've been avoiding may effect my people if they get too close to one? I'm worried about them."

Captain Janeway didn't miss the doctor's hand hovering over a curious pyramid shaped jewel on the Guardian's sash about his robes. She gave a small nod to the EMH that she understood. The doctor pretended to be nonchalantly interested in the green cloud formations overhead, twisting in the bluish sunlight.

The Guardian totally missed the exchange between them.  
"I've felt the symptoms myself. There is weakness and forgetfulness, even after a short exposure."

The hologram provided Janeway with some cover, "Would you know how to treat this malady? Any information would be very useful."

Captain bent over while she walked, pretending to hook an ice chip out of the inside of her boot's leg. She got a close look at the tiny pyramid.

What she saw there poured ice into her very soul.

A perfect replica of Voyager lay encased in its material. The engine nacelles were still active and running. They ....were the very source of the inner light that was sending out the tachyon decay readings the doctor could see.

::Oh my ...god. My ship.. It's here. ..::

-----------------------------------------------------------

Geordi LaForge's voice quietly dictated a log entry:

"Day two. From as best as I can tell, my paralysis extends to my lower waist. I have gaps in my memory that I can't explain. Beverly, my friend, cannot be taken off life support or she will die.

The computer tells me that a ship of some kind is due to arrive in nine hours and that she is friendly.

I can only wait for them and hope that the computer can keep her alive for that long.

I have learned why we are here on this planet. Beverly's log says I saw a distress call in my visor day before yesterday and that we went to investigate. For some reason, I am afraid...to go outside and see this world for myself.

I thought about curing the two of us but I have no useful information with which to learn how we got this way.

I feel time is running out. The numbness is getting worse and so is my memory.

If only I had some clue..."

--- --- --- --- --- ---

Geordi chuckled, leaning against the back wall nearest the biobed, "So..you can't tell me how to fly you...huh. Why not?"

He glanced ceilingward in mock indignation.

##The primary command core adaptive interface links are sealed for security protocol measures.## the computer droned.

Geordi winced at the jargon he must have understood at one time, "Wonderful..." he sighed sarcastically, "Just..."  
His eye fell on the plant remnants drying at his feet. He frowned, "Hey, computer... What are these vegetables at my feet?"

##The biological specimens are samples of the indigenous population of Endicor III.##

Geordi recoiled in sudden, instinctive fear. He scrabbled sideways, away from them.

##Warning. Occupant blood pressure dropping. Inject 4 CC's dexaline arteriorly.##

Geordi gasped,.. "ugh.. was th..that mine? Or hers..uh,  
location?"

##Anomalous reading came from biobed one.## replied the computer.

The engineer shifted himself over to the medkit and brought out the hypospray. The computer told him which color to dial its setting to and he injected it into Dr. Crusher's arm very quickly.

##Vital signs approaching stasis norms.##

Geordi lay down in utter relief.

The computer chimed once again,  
##Occupant to remain upright in cases of extremity paralysis.##

He dragged himself up against Beverly's bed, "...paralysis.  
yes...yes..I kn--" He flared uncharacteristically, "You got some bedside manner you tin plated excuse for a...a.. You know that? If Beverly were awake she'd--" Geordi fought down a wave of sadness that he had been battling for almost two days running. It threatened to overwhelm him. Sleep offered the only respite.  
"Computer, lights off!"

The cabin lights extinguished.

But a faint glow of green remained. It was coming from the shattered specimens on the floor. Geordi gaped at them.  
"Hey,... lights on full."

He winced when the illumination hurt his swollen eyes.

##Power reserve failure in two months twenty eight days,  
seventeen hours, fort--##

"Computer stop! Never mind that." He dragged himself closer to the plants, holding his breath when his face pushed into the foggy area they rested within.

The plant matter was ....growing..

Geordi retreated back into the clear air,  
"Computer, what is the energy source active in the plant matter in front of me?"

##Illumination is cryonetrium derived.##

"What is that?" Geordi asked warily.

##A theoretical substance that becomes gaseous at temperatures near zero degrees centigrade.##

A horrible thought bubbled up in Geordi's mind, "What is its effect on bio--biol- ..uh,...systems like me?"

##Unknown. Further hypotheses are scheduled for the next Altine Conference on Aldetta Prime on Stardate 47209 point..##

Geordi became frantic as he put two and two together.  
He got a single moment of perfect mental clarity.  
Sheer terror made adrenaline flow hard. He acted.  
"Computer!! Take no defensive action!"

He grabbed the strange object that suddenly identified itself as a phaser to his own mind at last. He phasered the plants out of existence, "Flood cabin air with .02 parts per million of Narcan. Execute!"

He heard the computer comply and the universal neutralizing drug began to hiss into the room.

He shifted over to Beverly and studied her pale face.  
"Oh god, what if it's poison?"

##Probability of cryonetrium being pathologically toxic is 82.3 % based on projected analysis of all known botanical species on file.##

Geordi was afraid to speak for several minutes. Then he did. "Based on those projections, what is the rate of deterioration in our bodies?"

##Metabolic nervous dysfunction will reach terminal endstage in two hours forty seven minutes.## answered the computer.

Geordi was stunned. ::We're gonna die. Long before anyone finds us.::

He sat still a long time, watching the machines breathe for his friend. He didn't feel the tears coursing down his cheeks.

Finally, he felt stronger when his anger was at a boil. ::It's not fair! There must be something I can do for us.::

Then the answer came in a tiny rivulet and turned into a raging torrent as his adrenaline cleared his thinking once more, this time fueled by anger.  
He added to his log,

"I have no choice. This has got to be it! The answer I need has got to be where the signal came from, and those heat pockets are the only place a change is happening.  
I am rigging up the thermodeflectors to the primary shields in reverse. I'm going to freeze the ground where ever I end up using the transporter carrier wave, projected to the most recent heating spike area. But.... I can't walk.. Nor will I soon enough.. End log."

His anger was turning to its new despairing level as he pulled the medkit into his lap. ::Here goes nothing.:: "Computer, is there any known medication that might reverse my paralysis?"

##There are several substances on file. Acetycholine, Allin--##

"Computer, hold. That first substance. Is there any of that in the shuttle's medkits?"

##Affirmative.## the computer replied.

"WeeeHoooo..! How much do I need to counteract my paralysis?"

Geordi felt his mind slipping again and he forced himself to wrap his brain around the difficult words before they were lost.

##Fifteen CC's. Results in a temporary reversal of nervous degradation using your current medical record history.##

Somehow, after a half an hour, Geordi managed to fanaggle the right drug and dosage through an idiot manual in a first aid kit file. He injected himself immediately.  
"Come on. Come on!"

Geordi's toes wriggled, "Heh. Hee. Computer..I think it's working.. How am I doing?"

The computer came to life once more, ##Vital signs are:  
BP 82 over--##

::Now there is jargon I have figured out. That number is my clock ticking down, when it hits 60 over something, I'll black out for good. I'll be just like Beverly. And there's only one biobed here , one medical computer.::

"Belay that audio for now. Notify me of ANY change in Beverly's biobed readings no matter where I go."

After twenty precious minutes, Geordi had pulled together enough gray matter to count. Terror once again made him ready to work. Soon, he retrieved the site to site arm band from Dr. Crusher and put it on. He glanced down at her and set a hand on her shoulder, "Hang in there, doc.  
We've got a chance..."

He levered himself onto his tingling feet and ordered,  
"Computer, project Program Theta and energize."

##Command understood.##

------------------------------------------------------------

Ariel was a little ways away from her Guardian and the lost captain and the man of light, following their trail, little by little the child let that distance between them grow.  
::I am losing control.. Soon no space will shield them from me.:: she thought with fright. ::My....wishings come even when I don't want them to.::

The unicorn girl could see them where they were walking across a field from under a clump of brush where she crouched.

The Ariel felt another wave of heat rising inside of her.  
::No. Stop...:: But the feeling grew stronger.

Then, a buzzing song filled the air around her.

A broad field effect froze the ground around Ariel as she fought down another involuntary intrusion of the still point under her feet. The relief from the strain was incredible and she fell to her knees.

::Another has come?:: She probed further. :: It is the one who heard me..::

Geordi materialized in front of Ariel. It was hard to say who was more startled, "Whoa.." he said.  
::Who is that? She almost seems to be part of the snow itself. She's blending in with it chameleon fashion even down to the infrared level...::

"S-Stay away!!" Ariel warned.."I...I don't want to hurt you.."  
she cried.

Her limpid eyes glinted fear even as they captivated Geordi. His own fear melted away under their lilac gaze.

::This man came from nowhere just as THEY had done from before.:: a part of her shouted. "But not from the Continuum.." she whispered...

"What?" Geordi asked, without moving.

Ariel froze in uncertainty.

Instinctively, Geordi felt a return of the alien pulse inside his visor. ::Hey wait a minute. She's the alien who contacted me. She needs my help. Now I need hers.:: "It's ok,...I won't hurt you either.  
I promise.. See?" He held up his hands. "No devices."  
He took a step nearer to her making sure to stay on top of the thickest ice. "I got your distress call,...through this..." He pointed to his face.

Ariel shot to her feet in alarm, backing warily,  
"Those are not your eyes..."

Geordi crouched down until he was her same height.  
"Don't worry. My visor only helps me see. Sometimes I can see things what other people can't. Like the signal you sent me.. And... your changing form.  
Even now. You're blending to be more like the land.  
And...and I can see that you are scared...."

He stood slowly.. "I am here to help you. That is why we came. Please believe that."

Ariel wilted to the ground. "I know...I know.  
The leading woman said that's why too. "

::Leading wo-- Janeway! :: Geordi suddenly remembered. ::This child's seen her.::

Ariel went on, "But the Guardian's sick.  
I brought Paradise too soon and now.. I can't stop it.." The sound of flowing water and thawing ice grew in the distance, louder by the second.  
"It's coming again... It's my fault, I wouldn't listen and now everyone is going to d--"

A sharp crack of ice burst across the plain,  
startling both of them. It began to rain for the first time ever on Endicor, a harbinger of death.

Geordi tried to make sense of what he had learned.  
"It's these temperature spikes? You've been following them. Haven't you? Listen.. You have to stay away from any place that's warm here. It's dangerous.  
The plants..." Geordi was seized in a cough.

He fell to his knees and began to weaken as the temporary stimulant began to wear off. He looked down, trying to move off the steaming ice onto the more chilled snow, but he slipped, falling only meters away from its firmly frosted edge. He yelled in frustration..

Ariel involuntarily drifted closer to him, uneffected by the cryonetrium gas pluming up from the warming ground. Shock was plain on her face, "You're like the G- Guardian.." she whispered, "You're being .  
sickened too."

Geordi rolled onto his back, fighting to just form words for speaking, "L-Listen.. I may know...what's wrong with your friend.. I- I've got it too. The earth is giving up a gas..th-- that's a poison to us."

Ariel suffered a qualm and her suppression efforts wavered as she found herself unwilling to see the consequences of her actions in full light. "No!"

A bomb materialized in the grass between them, its countdown was locked motionless in time, only ten seconds away from zero.

"Wait a minute.. You did that!" Geordi gasped, "Like you caused the temperature spik-- Like you caused the whole PLANET to warm up.." Geordi realized. ::All of the ice everywhere will melt. And the plants will grow, killing all of us in a blink of an eye.:: "Ugh.." Geordi's head began to spin and his breath shortened.

Ariel felt the man falter inside physically.  
Her will slipped a little lower. "...can't .I..can't stop it.."

The tenacious power within her was released.

The still point came in its full glory..

----------------------------------------------

Out on the plain, steam vaporized most of the snow.  
The Guardian and Captain Janeway choked in suddenly thick and poisonous air. They fell to the ground.

Kathryn was lost in a miasma of disorientation, but she could still see her entombed ship inside the pyramid, inches from her outstretched hand. "My ship! *cough* My crew.." Then the gas began to burn.

Her eyes went totally blind in a searing blast of pain. "NO!"  
Her scream echoed across the plain.

But no one heard her. The weaker Guardian was already unconscious and the doctor had been unconnected by the anti-lepton surge that came with the heat.

Captain Janeway was left all alone.  
::I ...am ..NOT..going..to die!::

But her breath began to flee from her mouth.

-------------------------------------------------

The unicorn child was confused, standing in a shaft of pure golden sunlight. She held up a handful of mosses to her cheek, "But this is...Paradise.." She glared at Geordi. "It's the Guardian's home!  
It is where he has to be.. I can see that. How can it kill?" Her white hair billowed around her face like an angel's...and her lilac eyes filled with the purest of tears, "Why won't the Guardian come here?"

Geordi did not hear her, "Your signal and lifesigns weren't detectable by our computer systems.. There must be a reason. Only I could see any of it.."  
He forced himself to his hands and knees. "Why?"

Then it came to him. Ariel had been concealing her friend, protecting him from outsiders. Geordi felt he was close to the answer, "Why are you hiding?"

Ariel got angry, "Quiet man thing!" The bomb in front of them activated and started its dire sequencing downward to detonation.

Geordi's eyes were glued to the readout, "Listen to me.. Think back in time. Before the plants effected your friend."

Ariel shook her head in denial, "There IS no time before!" she sobbed.

"Yes there was. You two came here together, you must have. Maybe YOU brought the Guardian here to stay with you so you would no longer be alone. Then he fell ill. You tried to bring him home but suddenly something went horribly wrong and he was hurt. "Geordi grew dizzier and he swayed, "Only you can undo this harm.. Only you.  
Maybe your Guardian is ill from the gas only while his home dimension is coming.. It should be fine once he gets all the way there.. Wait until he is well. Then take him.. Believe me.. Bring back the cold and wait. Bring it back. Make the land sleep and you'll see that I am right.."  
Geordi collapsed, at the end of his resources.  
"I...I am right...."

The unicorn child saw the man fading before her,  
"Guardian?..... I need you.!"

Suddenly her teacher WAS there, an unmoving smudge on the ground in front of her. Captain Janeway lay right beside him, her hands at her throat, gagging on foul air.

Geordi shouted, "Captain?!"

He could still see that she was fighting the poisonous atmosphere hard, for she turned toward his voice, "C--Can't--Br--" she choked.

He then saw the state of her eyes. They were filmed over in blisters. He knew she couldn't see him at all. He fought down his nausea. He needed the EMH. Now. He saw the datapadd lying in the steaming grass but it was too far out of his reach.

Limbo reigned in his mind and suddenly, Geordi knew what to do.

He pulled the bomb into his lap.

Ariel shouted, "Don't!" The land erupted in even thicker greenery.

La Forge hugged the device to his chest, "Ariel, THIS is the illness. Make it go away...." The countdown arched into its final numbers.

" ...3....2......1.."

-------------------------------------------------------------

The unicorn child, the last of her kind, ..............grew..

The incendiary device faded from view and Ariel sagged to her knees. ::They are all.. free now.... they are all....::

She opened her light purple eyes. The snow was unbroken and endless around them.

He was whole. Geordi sucked in huge lungfuls of frigid air,  
"You did it!" He was healthy. He got to his feet. Still gasping like a fish returned to water, he ran to Janeway and the Guardian.

They were no longer burned. Both were recovering consciousness as well. He got out his tricorder, "There's no sign of illness or heat pockets. Not in us or anywhere around here."

"Ariel.." said the Guardian as he opened his eyes. In a moment he was with her.

Geordi helped Janeway to her feet, "Are you all right?"

She nodded, revelling in the tears streaming down her face from the brightness of the blue sun above her. "I am now,  
How did you find us?"

"I'm afraid Ariel managed that." Geordi shrugged. Captain and Engineer both looked over to where the little child was lost in a soothing hug inside the Guardian's deep embrace. She was apologizing over and over again.

Captain Janeway suddenly realized that the Guardian was completely innocent of any wrong doing. She knelt by him,  
and waited for Ariel to face her, "Ariel, we need to talk.."  
she said gently.

The Guardian was puzzled, "Captain?"

"She has taken something belonging to me." Kathryn held Ariel's small shoulders in her palms, "He needed a special kind of energy didn't he? To get well?"

Ariel's eyes seemed to shimmer, "He is going to finish the Change and go to Paradise."

"Can he go home now? To the still point?" she asked.

The child answered, "Yes. He no longer hurts. The pendant I gave him made him better." She smiled and tugged on his robes, "Guardian,...I need the gift back."

Not quite understanding, he gave it to her.

Geordi tensed, "Captain, that's--"

Kathryn felt Ariel press the gold pyramid into her hands.  
"Yes,..it's my ship. It's Voyager." She stood, carefully cradling the jewel, "She needed charged tachyon particles of a very special nature to help the Guardian fight off the effects of the still point intrusions."

"She locked onto the emissions coming from your holodeck all the way from the Delta Quadrant?" Geordi was incredulous.

"Apparently so." Kathryn held onto the humming pyramid tightly. She couldn't ask about her crew out loud.

"Don't worry." She felt soft hands on her head, "They're ok. I fixed the harm inside there, too." Ariel's eyes were the purest pale purple, sparkling into Janeway's soul, "I'll put them back where they were." Ariel promised.

The pyramid vanished.

Captain Janeway gasped when her hands went suddenly empty.  
She trembled, "Guardian," she said with her eyes closed, "My people are stranded far from home. ..Is there any chance--"

"I'm sorry, Captain Janeway. The only way your ship will stay unaltered is to continue from the still point coordinate it fell through.."  
His expression softened, "However,..that is not necessarily true for you.." His amber eyes sparkled.

Ariel took Kathryn's hand and looked at her questioningly.  
"Do you want to go home to your green world?"

Kathryn was stunned....and torn. Here was a chance for her to end her long journey, to continue where she left off with her family..on Earth. ::Mark, Phoebe? And Oh, for the chance to hug my red four legged Molly love again. I wonder how many puppies she has borne for them..::

Then the Voyager captain thought of her sworn duty. To her crew. Her newest family on Voyager.

Kathryn's face slowly resolved into decision. She had to be a true captain when it really counted. ::Like now:  
She felt tears well in her eyes. She crouched by Ariel,  
touching her chin. "I can't." She took a deep shuddering breath and sighed, "Take me to where I need to be, Ariel. To my ship.. in the Delta Quadrant."

She turned to face Geordi, who handed her the doctor's data padd. Janeway looked at it with irony, "I've nothing with which to leave a message for Earth. There's no time.."

The engineer understood, deeply. "It's been a pleasure serving with you, Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager." He held out a hand.

Kathryn took it..and smiled, blinking back wetness,  
"Tell your grandkids to watch out for us. We just could be that one mirage in a million..."

She stepped away and handed the Guardian back his cloak.

Captain Janeway took one long, last look at Endicor III and swallowed. It was so near the Earth she loved and longed for. Then she closed her eyes slowly, and nodded once.

There was a sparkle of blue sunlight, and she was gone.

---------------------------------------------------------

Ariel broke the spell of parting they all felt, "Guardian, You must go. As she did."

Her statement jarred Geordi into the present.

The Guardian knelt down before his small charge, "I don't pretend to understand what is happening to me.. The Change takes all of my people sooner or.." He broke off, suddenly reluctant.

Ariel smiled, "I'll be all right with Geordi. I like him."  
She took the engineer's hand.

The Guardian sighed, "You will protect her from the OTHERS?"

Geordi raised a questioning look.

Ariel spoke, "You know.... The ones from the Continuum.."

LaForge chuckled, "Oh,.. uh right. My captain and I have dealt with them before. We know how to handle them as well as anybody can." he admitted.

"Fair enough....." The guardian seemed to phase. Regular pulses of brilliance blinded Geordi as his body metamorphosed. Then the Guardian was a figure of glowing gold.

"Hey.. I think I've met one of your people before. On the Enterprise..." exclaimed Geordi.

For a moment, there were two suns in the sky.  
When Geordi opened his eyes, the new one had totally vanished.

LaForge heard a sudden bleep. The computer came over Geordi's combadge, =^=##Occupant lifesigns failing.  
Initiating cardiac countermeasures.##=^=

"Beverly!" Geordi's mind raced. He had forgotten about her.

"Who?" Ariel was immediately caught up in Geordi's alarm.

"My friend. She's a doctor. Listen!! We've got to get there. She's still dying from the gas." Geordi grabbed the unicorn child's hand.

-------------------------------------------------------

Suddenly, they were in the shuttle by Dr. Crusher's side.  
The air was filled with a dissonant alarm from the monitor above Beverly's head. Geordi read the readouts, "She's near death. She's absorbed too much poison.  
You've got to help her!"

"I--I don't know if...I" Ariel was very pale.

"You helped us. It looked easy." he said.

The lavender in Ariel's eyes was very dull, "Her light's almost gone. I'm not sure if I can help. I..."

"You have to try!" Geordi shoved her forward, setting Ariel's hands on the doctor's chest.

Ariel fought with herself mentally for long seconds. Sweat plastered her white hair to her even paler skin. She gestured, in a sparkle of gold colored light, in a circle around Beverly's heart.

The life support unit flashed and suddenly, Dr. Crusher came to life violently, totally awake and gasping for air. Geordi grabbed her before she could fall back again and hit her head.  
"Easy! Easy. Easy. Take it slow.. You're gonna be fine.."

Ariel collapsed bonelessly to the carpeting.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The child felt hands around her face but she was in pain.

Dr. Crusher looked up, "Geordi, she's coming around."  
Beverly shifted the tiny figure against one arm carefully, while she grabbed instruments with her other hand, "Ariel, can you hear me? If so, I want you to open your eyes..."

Ariel wondered why this woman's voice was so tight. Then she felt a numbness in her body that hadn't been there before.

Dr. Crusher took her hand, "I want you to do the same trick with yourself as you did with me. Cure the poisoning..."

Ariel was confused. ::Poison? What was poison:  
Then her mind began to reject the communication of those above her. She began to call the blackness already reaching out for her.

Geordi was anguished, "Is she going to make it?"

"That's up to her....Ariel! Try! I can't help you any more than I already am." She saw that all the medication she had injected into Ariel's bloodstream was rapidly being rendered into useless water.  
Bev's bioscan on Ariel began to sour in tones as the girl child weakened rapidly.

Ariel looked up at her rescuers, "I...am sorry.."  
She saw summer approaching.. "I...."  
A voice was calling her. "Guardian?"

Then the blackness of the gas was no longer there suffocating her. A second later, Ariel found an unexpected peace and the essence she knew as herself and had commanded, gave up its call on life.

Beverly's tricorder issued a steady tone.

Suddenly, the small albino child faded out from underneath Crusher's hands quite literally as a blue effect dissolved the child's body completely.

Geordi and Beverly were stunned and they just sat there in silence looking at the last place the tiny child had been. The medical tricorder had fallen quiet, so Beverly shut its lid closed and shivered. She whispered into the stillness, "Why did she have to give up?"

--------------------------------------------------

They were on their way. Geordi was finishing up his preliminary report on their experience for the log,

"........the Guardian's identity. Dr. Crusher is convinced he was Zalconian. Like the man she once knew as John Doe. I only half recall his being on the Enterprise. She said he spent weeks in sickbay trying to regain his memory and his health and that he saved Mr. Worf from a very grave injury in the shuttle bay before he "phased" completely away.  
Endicor III shows no signs of ever having been altered."

Dr. Crusher had been listening for quite a while while he was dictating. Feeling a bit uncomfortable now in the pausing, she spoke. "Penny for your thoughts."

Geordi gave a low chuckle, "Nah, I was just thinking how much fun the others are having on Talyas Moon right now. You know, with the stars,  
the tropicals winds..."

"and the women.." she completed, baiting him on.

He didn't fall for it. Nor did he elaborate further on her guessing about the Moon's appeal for men.

Dr. Crusher stretched in her seat, "I have a feeling that every female being this side of the Sagittarius Arm feels the same way about that ..that.  
that..place as I do, knowing that it's hanging over their heads." she scoffed mildly.

Geordi found that very funny. He threw back his head and laughed until his sides hurt. Beverly did her best to ignore him.

He recovered, streaming rivers, "Your turn." He pantomimed flipping a coin to her.

"Hhmmmmmm..... I was just thinking about something I hadn't thought about since I was very small." she mused.

"And what was that?" he wanted to know.

"I was thinking about the two Cassienne fish I had when I was six. They used to sing me to sleep at night."

"Hmmm, nice. Too bad you can't change the past...." Geordi sighed.

A surge of light flooded the ahead viewscreen of the Batai and the shuttle shifted, "What was that?" Geordi shouted.

The communications panel spoke, ##This is the U.S.S.  
Kilamanjaro calling the Batai, over....It's 1300 and we're ready for Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge's transfer at your convenience.##

Geordi scrambled madly for his board, "Uh ..how?! uh, ..right.  
I'll be right there..Don't go AwayYY!"

The overhead clicked once more, "Shuttlecraft Batai. This is Captain Selve Aranti. Is there a problem?" a different but feminine voice asked.

Geordi and Beverly exchanged a wide eyed look. He looked at his station chronometer, "It's 240920.7! That's..two days ago? But we were...gone ..for three...."

Crusher toggled a switch, "This is Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher. Ah, our lieutenant commander is a little excited over finally getting underway to Talyas Moon. He'll be arriving shortly. Batai out."

Captain Aranti remarked dryly, "I see. It's that place again, hmmm? Very well. We disembark in ten minutes."

The viewer went dark.

"We traveled back in time?"  
Geordi crowed, "I knew it!! She's alive!"

Crusher agreed, "I should have known unicorns can't die."

"Do you think Ariel is ...some...mythical beast?" smiled Geordi.

"Not really. But legends always start from somewhere."

Another flash of light made them both wince. A bowl of delicate rainbow fish appeared on Dr. Crusher's console. An ethereal singing filled the tiny cabin.

Both officers melted under their influence.

Crusher sighed, "It could have been worse. Before these guys, I was thinking about Sham, my grandmother's Arabian stallion."

A shrill neigh boomed into the air. Geordi and Beverly sank into their seats in reflex. Cautiously, they looked over their shoulders.

Nothing was there.

They both laughed uncomfortably but with growing warmth,  
"Oh, heh. Joke.. just a joke. Nice sense of humor there, Ariel.  
Keep it up.. Heh, heh.........heh."

Just to be safe, the two Starfleet officers checked behind their co-pilots seats once more, peeking only their noses over the backs of them.

END 


End file.
